
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



Chap. Copyright No. 

Shelf„__L£!_.^^^^^ 
i^0 . 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

L 



All orders for copies of this book should 
be addressed to the Librarian of the Anna 
Ticknor Library Association, Trinity 
Court, Boston. Price, including postage, 
$1.00 ; to Members of the Society the book 
will be mailed, postpaid, for £0 cents. 



SOCIETY TO ENCOURAGE 
STUDIES AT HOME 



FOUNDED IN 1873 BY 

ANNA ELIOT TICKNOR 

Born June ist, 1823 
Died October sth, 1896 



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CAMBRIDGE 



JJrinteU at tje EitoerfiiUe l^vtsis 



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NOV 15 1897 J 
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COPYRIGHT, 1897 
BV SOCIETY TO ENCOURAGE STUDIES AT HOME 



1- ) 
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TO THE STUDENTS OF THE 

SOCIETY TO ENCOURAGE STUDIES AT HOME 

WHOSE INTEREST AND INDUSTRY 

HAVE BEEN THE INSPIRATION 

X OF THEIR TEACHERS 

THIS MEMORIAL 

IS DEDICATED 



This memorial has been prepared by a small 
committee appointed for the purpose in January, 
1897. The short account of Miss Ticknor is writ- 
ten by Samuel Eliot, LL. D., the chairman of the 
Society from the beginning, to whose wise rulings 
much of its success is due, and whose unfailing 
presence at the annual meetings has added dig- 
nity and weight to those occasions. The sketch 
of the foundation and character of the Society is 
written by Mrs. Louis Agassiz, who was a life- 
long friend of Miss Ticknor, and always con- 
nected with the Society. 



CONTENTS 

FAQE 

I. Biographical Note 1 

II. Foundation and Character of the So- 
ciety 4 

III. First Years of the Society ... 8 

IV. History of the Departments . . 26 
V. Branches and Kindred Organizations 59 

VI. Correspondence 71 

I. Letters from Miss Ticknor 
II. Letters to and from Miss Ticknor 

AND Members of the Society 
III. Letters about the Society from 
Members. 

VII. Conclusion 178 

Appendices. 

A. List of Correspondents . . 181 

B. Health 190 

C. Twenty-Fourth Annual Report 208 
Index 217 



SOCIETY TO ENCOURAGE 
STUDIES AT HOME. 

I. 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 

Anna Eliot Ticknor, daughter of 
George and Anna (Eliot) Ticknor, was fifty 
years old, when in 1873 she founded the So- 
ciety to which she thenceforth devoted her- 
self until her death. 

Her birth, education and position were 
such as to fit her exceptionally for the work 
she undertook. Her father was not only 
the historian of Spanish Literature, but a 
professor of modern languages who intro- 
duced elective courses into Harvard College, 
and at a later time was one of the found- 
ers and early presidents of the Boston 
Public Library. He had many correspond- 
ents of eminence abroad and at home, many 
distinguished friends with whom his inter- 
course was frequent, and their society would 
naturally make a large element in his 
daughter's life. Her mother was of a sen- 



2 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

sitive and an animating nature, able to 
sympathize with an enterprise like this 
society, and to help it forward by personal 
influence and personal exertion. Miss Tick- 
nor's character rendered her a nearly ideal 
leader in the movement. She was quick of 
temperament, and ambitious of usefulness far 
more than of any distinction. While appre- 
ciative of the restrictions which she wished 
to remove, she was desirous to gratify, if 
possible, the aspirations of the large number 
of women throughout the country who would 
fain obtain an education, and who had little, 
if any hope of obtaining it. She was very 
highly educated herseK, and thought more 
and more of her responsibility to share her 
advantages with others not possessing them. 
She had written for others' benefit a few 
articles, a book about Paris for young peo- 
ple, a biography of her father's friend and 
hers. Dr. Cogswell of the Astor Library, 
and, at the time of the foundation of the 
Society, she was much occupied in preparing 
the material for her father's memoirs. In 
addition to all these qualifications, moral 
and intellectual, she possessed an executive 
ability not then fully known, but brought 
into constant prominence by her work as 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 3 

secretary of the Society. She was at once 
secretary, treasurer and president, writer of 
reports, framer of courses and of book lists, 
purchaser for the library, and active in all 
sorts of details. More important still was 
her correspondence with the students of the 
Society, as will appear hereafter in this vol- 
ume. It will be seen that she was a teacher, 
an inspirer, a comforter and, in the best 
sense, a friend of many and many a lonely 
and baffled life. 

This note is intentionally very brief. The 
only thing to be added is that the Society 
was Miss Ticknor's exceeding great reward, 
that it was her consolation amid the bereave- 
ments of her later years, her companionship 
in the solitariness which followed her mo- 
ther's death, eleven years before her own, 
and a source of delightful activities which 
made the end of her life a happy one. 



II. 



FOUNDATION AND CHARACTER OP THE 
SOCIETY. 

While colleges and academies for women 
were springing up all over the country, Miss 
Ticknor bethought herself of those whose 
homes were far away from the centres of 
learning and instruction, and yet who craved 
educational advantages for themselves and 
their families. With this idea in her mind, 
she worked out an organization at once sim- 
ple and elastic, easy of expansion should 
numbers increase, and readily adjusted to 
more varied needs as they might arise in 
the farther development of her plan. 

She did not advertise in any way. "If 
it is really needed," so she was wont to say, 
"it will soon make itself known." She 
announced it only in a circular intended for 
limited distribution, which gave a concise 
but comprehensive statement of her scheme. 
The instruction was to be carried on by 
correspondence, and so infectious was her 



FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY 5 

enthusiasm that before long she had at 
her command a large body of voluntary 
co-workers — numbering finally more than 
two hundred persons. Among them were 
friends of her own, whose scholarly tastes 
were at once attracted by her aims ; there 
were also here and there experienced teach- 
ers who were willing to give their hard- 
earned leisure, and there were young girls 
whose proficiency in certain directions made 
them valuable assistants in the work. Each 
one represented a special department, and 
stood sponsor for a given number of pupils. 

To this miscellaneous, and as it might 
seem, at first glance, somewhat desultory 
assemblage of instructors. Miss Ticknor's 
administrative ability gave an almost pro- 
fessional coherence and strength. There 
was nothing fragmentary in their methods. 
Under her inspiration the different depart- 
ments worked with unity of aim, like a 
well-ordered force under one head. 

It may be truly said that from her desk 
in Boston Miss Ticknor laid out and di- 
rected courses of study over the country. 
By a well-organized system of distribution, 
she sent books, engravings, photographs, 
maps, all that makes the outfit of thorough 



6 STUDIES AT HOME 

instruction, to the doors of families living far 
from libraries, museums or colleges. Slie 
opened new sources of progress and plea- 
sure to mothers and their children within 
their own homes, and without hindering in 
any way domestic duties and claims. It 
was touching to read the affectionate and 
grateful letters of acknowledgment from 
some of these distant homes, into which she 
had brought unlooked-for means of happi- 
ness and interest. 

She collected a large lending library; 
and though these books were constantly on 
the road and passed through many hands, 
they were rarely lost, and, with few excep- 
tions, they were returned uninjured. 

It is difficult to follow in detail the bene- 
ficent course of a purpose so wisely con- 
ceived, so quietly carried out, and conducted 
withal in such economical fashion that no 
public appeal was ever made in its behalf. 
The membership fee was at first two dollars 
annually, raised afterwards to three dollars ; 
and the students for some years increased 
in numbers so rapidly that the Society be- 
came largely self-supporting. Well was it 
called " the silent university," for its quiet 
unobtrusiveness was no less worthy of ad- 
miration than its efficiency. 



FOUNDATION OF TEE SOCIETY 7 

In this memorial we wish not only to 
record our affection and respect lor her per- 
sonally, but also to associate her name in 
some enduring form with the educational 
movement which she inaugurated. Its suc- 
cess was due to her wise administration, her 
practical sagacity in the application of 
means and methods, and, more than all, to 
her brave enthusiasm, which was an inspira- 
tion to those who worked under her leader- 
ship. 

Elizabeth Cart Agassiz. 



in. 

FIRST YEARS OF THE SOCIETY. 

In June, 1873, some papers of an English 
organization, entitled " Society for the En- 
couragement of Home Study," fell into the 
hands of Miss Ticknor, who was instantly 
inspired with a desire to work out the idea 
suggested by the title. On September 29, 
she wrote to an English friend : " One thing 
which I have been busy about for a long 
time, but especially lately, is getting up a 
small society to work as noiselessly as possi- 
ble, in imitation of an English one called a 
Society for the Encouragement of Home 
Study. . . . We have kept very quiet about 
our work hitherto, but presently, when our 
circular is handed about, it can no longer 
be a secret. We hope, however, never to 
get into the newspapers. . . . We hope to 
do some good, even if it is on a very small 
I scale, by assisting women to form habits of 
study, without professing anything technical 
or learned." 



FIRST YEARS OF THE SOCIETY 9 

The last annual reports prepared by Miss 
Ticknor were accompanied by the following 
passages from earlier reports on the history 
and methods of the society : — 

" Instead of confining our offers of help — 
as the English society did at that time — to 
the wealthy class only, we at once endeavored 
to interest all classes ; for we thought all 
needed us, though for different reasons, as 
all are liable to the consciousness of defi- 
ciency, general or special, in their educa- 
tion, and all may feel the need of encourage- 
ment to overcome some obstacle, it may be 
want of opportunity, or it may be in lack of 
energy to use existing opportunities. In- 
stead of mere plans for work without corre- 
spondence, and the irksome requirement of 
presence at headquarters at the end of each 
year, for competitive examinations and prizes, 
we adopted monthly correspondence, with 
frequent tests of results, desiring to pro- 
duce intellectual habits and resources, with- 
out competition, and without even fostering 
the desire to reach certain points at certain 
moments.^ 

1 This idea of monthly letters between teacher and 
student seems to have originated with Miss Ticknor, and 
was, from the very beginning, an essential part of the 
work, and the main source of the Society's strength and 



10 STUDIES AT HOME 

"Our committee consisted of ten persons, 
when it began its existence in tlie autumn 
of 1873 ; and six of its members undertook 
the entire correspondence with forty-five per- 
sons, residing in seven States, who entered as 
students during the first term. 

" This committee was formed with only- 
two points of method settled ; namely, that 
there should be a regular correspondence, 
and that there should not be competitive ex- 
aminations. Afterwards, during one of the 
consultations about lists, rules, and circulars, 
a member said, ' The readers must make 
notes ; ' to which another answered, ' That 
is useless, for as soon as a fact is written 
down it is discharged from the memory and 
forgotten.' — 'Then let them make their 
notes from memory ; ' and this has proved 
to be one of the most efficient elements of 
our system. 

" We attempted annual examinations by 
letter, with certificates, but abandoned the 
idea after two years, and afterwards relied 
upon frequent examinations — on books or 
portions of subjects — and upon the records 
kept during the term by the correspondents, 
for ranking the students. 

" A new inquirer obtains our circular, 



fijRST years of the society 11 

stating our rules and the subjects in which 
we offer help, — of which there are twenty- 
nine for selection, included in six depart- 
ments, with section and sub-section — and 
among these she is to select one only for the 
beginning. She then pays her fee. 

" To the new student two papers are sent, 
— a printed receipt for the money, with 
which are included three general questions, 
viz.. How old she is, whether educated at 
public or private schools, and whether she is 
a teacher ; and a copy of a short letter from 
the head of the Department, asking other 
questions appropriate to the subject of study, 
and giving some directions. The answers to 
these questions guide the head of the De- 
partment in the selection of the correspond- 
ent. No further communication takes place 
between the Secretary and the student — 
extraordinaries excepted, but every month a 
formal report is received at headquarters 
from each lady correspondent, giving cer- 
tain items for record about each of her stu- 
dents. 

" Meantime the head of the Department 
sends to the new student the name and ad- 
dress of the correspondent to whom she is 
assigned, with printed directions for her 



12 STUDIES AT HOME 

mode of work. The first book to be used is, 
if she desires it, sent to her from our lend- 
ing library, and she begins to read, with the 
practice of making memory notes, being ex- 
pected thenceforward to write at the begin- 
ning of each month to her special adviser, 
inclosing a specimen of her memory notes. To 
this monthly letter she is to receive a prompt 
reply. Memory notes are to be made con- 
stantly ; and from time to time she will be 
asked to write an abstract or to answer ex- 
amination questions, — on honor, without 
referring to books, — all for the purpose 
simply of securing her grasp of the contents 
of the books she reads, and fixing in her 
memory the important facts. 

" Our Health Tract — sent to each of our 
students when she joins us — preaches the 
responsibility of women for the health of the 
home, and the value of physical exertion in 
household work as a balance to intellectual 
work. Many a student of ours has proved 
that the two kinds of work can go on suc- 
cessfully side by side. If each woman in a 
home takes her share of household duties, 
all will have more leisure for intellectual 
refreshment ; and as a young man now goes 
into a machine-shop or a mill, among the 



FIRST YEARS OF THE SOCIETY 13 

operatives, to learn the processes he desires 
later to direct, so a young woman needs to 
learn the processes by which a house is kept 
in order and a family judiciously fed, so 
that, when called on to oversee or to do the 
work, she may fill her place easily, and be 
more free for mental occupation in some 
form that attracts her taste. The natural 
turn of the mind deserves special consider- 
ation after school-days are over. A wise 
young married woman, who pursued a classi- 
cal and mathematical course in college, wrote 
lately : ' Perhaps the way to get women to 
study after leaving school or college is to 
find out, or help them to find out, what they 
will love to study.' " 

The original committee of ten consisted 
of Mrs. Louis Agassiz, Miss Elizabeth C. 
Cleveland, Miss Lucretia Crocker, Mrs. 
Ellen W. Gurney, Miss Katharine P. Lor- 
ing. Miss Ellen F. Mason, Miss Elizabeth 
W. Perkins, Mrs. Ticknor, Miss Ticknor, 
Secretary and Treasurer, and Samuel Eliot, 
Chairman. 

At the first annual meeting, held June 
4, 1874, Miss Ticknor reported as secretary 
in the following terms : — 

" The circulars were originally distributed 



14 STUDIES AT HOME 

by me, and by the members of the Com- 
mittee, only to persons whom we knew, or 
to those to whom we were asked to send 
them by common friends. A very few were 
sent by me to teachers of reputation and to 
superintendents of schools. Since the first 
weeks, applications for them have been fre- 
quent. 

" We have adhered and still intend to 
adhere to a fixed purpose of avoiding all 
connection with newspapers and periodicals, 
preferring to make our work well known in 
the unobtrusive manner which is in harmony 
with its spirit. The atmosphere of Home 
Study, while it need not exclude the sym- 
pathy of an organization like ours, would 
not be healthily affected by association with 
public comment or applause, any more than 
by the artificial excitement of open competi- 
tion, certainly not if we should seek it our- 
selves. 

" We took pains to scatter our circulars 
as widely as possible over the country, and 
the consequence is that our students are not 
exclusively in this neighborhood, nor even 
confined to this State, and we have the 
pleasure of seeing here to-day some who 
have made the exertion of coming more than 



FIRST YEARS OF THE SOCIETY 15 

two hundred miles on purpose to join us in 
this meeting. Twenty-two of our students 
live in Massachusetts, ten in Maine, and 
five in New York, three each in New Hamp- 
shire and Pennsylvania, and one each in 
Vermont and Connecticut. Two young 
ladies in Indiana and one in Rhode Island 
have expressed their intention of joining us 
in the autumn. The response we have met 
has certainly been cordial. 

" The attraction of the different courses of 
study offered in our circular varies widely, 
and is in some points unexpected. It is 
natural that the course of History should 
draw the largest number of students, but it 
is a surprise to find the Science course drew 
the smallest. The scale is as follows : 
First, History ; next, English Literature 
and German, which are equal ; third, Art 
and French, which are also equal ; and last, 
Science. . . . 

"Each branch of study is under the 
charge of a lady of the Committee, who 
gives such directions as she sees fit with 
regard to the mode of working of her stu- 
dents, suggests books to be read in addition 
to the printed list, and advises or explains. 
This is done by means of monthly corre- 



16 STUDIES AT HOME 

spondence, wMch is made as regular as 
possible. 

" In one respect the special directions for 
all tlie courses are uniform. All tlie stu- 
dents are requested to make notes, from 
memory, of what they read, in a book, this 
being the best method we have found by 
which private study may receive a test, like 
a recitation, and the note-book, after cor- 
rection, being a serviceable record for future 
reference. 

" An experiment which has been success- 
fully tried may perhaps furnish a good 
example for imitation. Five ladies in Hal- 
lowell, Maine, have formed a reading club 
in connection with us, reporting to us 
monthly, and pursuing the same method 
recommended for individuals. They have 
met regularly once a week for loud reading, 
but in the intervening days have continued, 
individually, the reading of a prescribed 
portion of the book in hand, and each has 
taken notes of the whole matter read. At 
the weekly meetings the notes of one have 
been read aloud to the others, each one tak- 
ing her turn." 

This first club deserves more than a pass- 
ing notice, as in later years, clubs formed 



FIRST YEARS OF THE SOCIETY 17 

an important element in the Society, and 
through these clubs the influence of the 
Home Study work was broader and more 
far reaching than through the individual 
student, though less personally interesting. 

Miss Ticknor's report closed with the 
gratifying statement that " Scarcely more 
than five per cent of absolute failure, and 
sixty-five per cent of absolute success, is a 
result which repays us for a good deal of 
thought and labor, and inspires us with 
hope and zeal for continuing our work." 

Thus ended the first year of a successful 
experiment. The reports give but little idea 
of the amount of work done by the mem- 
bers of the Committee. Miss Ticknor 
taught the students in English Literature ; 
she also conducted the general correspond- 
ence herself with the help of her mother, 
who had already passed her seventieth year. 
The interest shown by Mrs. Ticknor never 
flagged, though advancing years soon com- 
pelled her to give up her active share in the 
work. Whatever she was connected with 
gained from her an added dignity and 
charm, and the early members of the Society 
will always recall with pleasure her gra- 
ciousness and serenity, as she sat near her 



18 STUDIES AT HOME 

daughter in the beautiful old library in 
Park Street. 

Miss Ticknor's letters were full and de- 
tailed, and her enthusiasm and devotion 
kindled similar interest in her helpers. " It 
is, after all," she wrote to a young friend, 
one of her helpers, " not absolute instruc- 
tion that we offer so much as guidance, 
criticism and sympathy." How much this 
sympathy meant may be seen in the fol- 
lowing letter, written after Miss Ticknor's 
death by one of the students : — 

" I have long felt that the grievous disap- 
pointment of my girlhood in regard to an 
education brought me peculiarly valuable 
and compensating privileges, through the 
correspondence and acquaintance with some 
of the officers of the Home Study Society. 
I do not know how else I should have ever 
come into contact with women of such char- 
acter, nor have had the opportunity to re- 
ceive such benefits from their hands as I 
have. I do not know where I should stop, 
if I tried to tell how much they have helped 
me to in my isolated life. I craved so 
much, and there seemed no access possible 
to anything I wanted. . . . 

" I had never realized until the announce- 










K 



3 

■^ 



i 



i 



FIRST YEARS OF THE SOCIETY 19 

ment of Miss Ticknor's death, what it was 
to feel that there was always some place to 
turn to where my needs and application for 
assistance would always meet an answer. I 
cannot express my sense of loss. When I 
come to look over the few letters I have in 
Miss Ticknor's writing, I feel as if it had 
been very good to owe such obligations as I 
do to her life and the loving thought she 
had for others. Her letters take me back 
to the days when I ventured to ask her 
questions about our house building, about 
tasteful dressing, and the gratitude I felt for 
her touching on other subjects, as she did in 
her mention of Mr. Fiske's books in her 
last letter to me. To her beautiful effort, 
and the assistance of those she enlisted with 
her, I owe so much that makes life happier, 
and better worth living, and worthier." 
Another student writes as follows : — 
..." Miss Ticknor's letters to me were 
almost all brief business notes, of interest 
only at the moment. Of the few exceptions, 
I inclose three : the one in which she so 
humorously speaks of the rank of pupils ; 
the one calling me to my position as teacher ; 
and the very last she ever wrote me, in 1892, 
which shows how many byways of usefulness 



20 STUDIES AT HOME 

she was ready to open for others, and to 
enter herself. Two precious little notes of 
sympathy, at the time of my mother's death, 
seem too personal to make public, but I 
hope some one will speak, in this memorial, 
of her ready sympathy with the domestic 
trials of her students. . . . She was a noble 
woman in every way, and the inspiration 
she has been in my own life is doubtless 
duplicated in many others." 

The second year of the Society was like 
the first, a continuation of quiet success. No 
efforts were made to have it advertised in 
any way, but the numbers were nearly 
doubled. The names of eighty-two pupils 
were enrolled, fifty-nine of whom worked 
industriously through the year, and gave sat- 
isfaction by their interest and their desire 
to improve. 

The difficulty which the students had ex- 
perienced in finding the required books led 
to the establishment of a lending library, in 
the winter of 1875. At the end of the term 
it was still very small, consisting of only 
twenty-nine volumes. Most of these had 
been purchased only when asked for by stu- 
dents, and this rule was generally adhered 
to in late years, so that ultimately, when 



FIRST YEARS OF THE SOCIETY 21 

several thousand volumes had been collected, 
it was an excellent working library, espe- 
cially strong in history, literature and art. 

The intercourse with the students was of 
the pleasantest kind and often most friendly. 
The correspondence was always opened by 
Miss Ticknor, and she never failed, even 
when there were hundreds of applicants for 
membership, to send a few words of cordial 
greeting to each one, new and old alike. 

The second annual meeting was held June 
3, 1875. Over twenty students came, and 
after visiting places of public interest under 
the guidance of some of the correspondents, 
they were received at luncheon at the houses 
of three of the Committee. In the after- 
noon the formal meeting took place at 
9 Park Street. The Secretary then read 
her report, showing that while the number of 
students was doubled, the proportion of suc- 
cessful workers had also increased. The 
members of the Committee, nine in all, had 
received and answered three hundred and 
fifty reports from their students. 

Hitherto the Committee had been very 
careful not to advertise the Society in any 
way, but in the summer of 1875, they 
yielded to the request of Mr. W. D. How- 



22 STUDIES AT HOME 

ells, then editor of the " Atlantic Monthly," 
that a short account should be given of the 
work in that magazine. This led to notices 
in newspapers in other parts of the country, 
and even as far as Lucknow, India. The 
result was a sudden and quite unexpected 
increase in the number of students. By 
November there were two hundred and thir- 
teen names enrolled from twenty-four States 
and Canada. More help was needed. The 
Secretary was authorized to employ a clerk, 
and the members of the Committee sought 
near and far for capable teachers to aid 
them in caring for many students. Miss 
Ticknor took the heaviest share of the 
labor, for, as she herself said, the Society 
had become her strongest interest outside of 
family and social ties and duties, and it con- 
tinued so to the end. The work was now 
divided into departments, each lady in 
charge of a department being responsible 
for what was done in it, and later a subdivi- 
sion into sections was made ; the later history 
of the Society is given in the accounts of 
these departments. 

The Society finances were always in good 
condition. The expenses were small in pro- 
portion to the work done, as the teachers 



FIRST YEARS OF THE SOCIETY 23 

gave their services freely and often paid for 
their postage. The students' annual fees, 
at first two, and later three dollars, were suf- 
ficient for many years to pay for the clerical 
labor, stationery and postage, and also office 
rent for three years. Occasional gifts from 
outside sources rendered it possible to buy 
books, photographs and instruments for in- 
struction. Miss Ticknor was Treasurer till 
1891, when Mrs. Richards took her place. 

With the increased numbers there were 
necessarily more detailed business arrange- 
ments, but these were planned so as to weigh 
as lightly as possible on the students. The 
only outward signs of the Society in the cor- 
respondence were the letters S. H. written 
in the corner of the envelope, which some- 
times roused the curiosity of outsiders, as is 
seen by the following letter from a student. 

" Did I ever write you about the S. H. on 
our letters ? I think not. You must know 
that I told our colored postman long ago 
that S. H. stood for sweetheart, as he seemed 
to think some one was very constant in let- 
ters to me. . . . Don't you think that sweet- 
heart is a pretty meaning for our S. H. ? I 
am sure it is very dear to me. I do enjoy it 
so much." 



24 STUDIES AT HOME 

Later came from another student this lit- 
tle poem. 

S. H. 

"THE MAGIC LETTERS — S. H.'* 

Sweet-Heart, stay a moment, 

I would question you, 
Here 's a riddle none can read 
Save yourself, and so, indeed, 

Sweet-heart, tell me true ! 

Say, Hast thou a lover 

Far across the sea ; 
Does he send thee very oft 
Letters, full of greetings soft, 

Meant for none but thee ? 

See How each envelope 

Bears a mystic sign ! 
Yes, I know them, one and all. 
By two letters, straight and small, 

On the lowest line. 



Surely Have I never 

Such a maiden seen, 
For to all my questions grave 
Only this reply she gave, 

" You are very green ! " 

Since, However, truly 
You desire to know 
What portends this magic seal, 



FIRST YEARS OF THE SOCIETY 25 

List, its meaning I '11 reveal, 
And the secret show. 

Study ! Has our language 

Any mightier word ? 
Bearing in its letters five 
Power to labor, strength to strive 

With a peaceful sword. 

Safe from Harm, nor needing 

Restlessly to roam, 
I will lead you to the nook 
Where I linger with my book, 

Studying at Home. 



IV. 

HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS. 

In sketching these, no mention is made 
of individual work.^ It must be taken for 
granted that the training given by the So- 
ciety was in the charge, first, of a few who 
planned the different courses, and next, of 
the comparatively greater number who car- 
ried out the plans thus laid. Names are 
given but sparingly, in view of the general 
purpose of this memorial. 

I. History was organized by Miss Katha- 
rine P. Loring, and afterwards directed by 
her, except during eight years, when her 
place was taken successively by Miss Mary 
C. Peabody, Miss Mary B. Foote and Miss 
Elizabeth T. Thornton. 

The lesson at first consisted of a list of 
subjects and characters in contemporary 
European history to be studied in given text- 
books, and a review of the period in Free- 
1 See Appendix A. 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 27 

man's " Outlines of History," then just pub- 
lished. What answered for the recitation 
was a monthly report, consisting of memory 
notes carefully chosen and classified, an ab- 
stract covering the whole period, and an- 
swers to examination questions sent without 
correction. Of course it rarely happened 
that all or even two of these exercises were 
sent each month, and the work of one les- 
son sometimes covered many weeks. This 
system was the one always carried out, with 
modifications suggested by experience and 
individual requirements ; essays on given 
subjects were substituted for abstracts, and 
sometimes no recitation was required other 
than the examination answers. 

In looking back to the day when Miss 
Ticknor first called her assistants together in 
the library in Park Street, where the out- 
lines of the work were settled, it clearly ap- 
pears that it has been carried on by a process 
of gradual evolution under the intellectual 
direction of many women. The aim of the 
teachers was to help the students to find 
the meaning of history, and to understand 
a people, by taking dates, events and even 
the lives and doings of important men as 
indications, not final knowledge. 



28 STUDIES AT HOME 

Probably not more than one in ten of the 
books recommended in our first lists would 
be found in our last. The manner of writ- 
ing history has become a new art during 
the quarter century, and this in great mea- 
sure has shaped our courses of study. The 
first volumes of the Epoch Series of history, 
edited by Morris, were published as we be- 
gan our work, furnishing us with text-books 
which, being comparatively short and writ- 
ten by authors each an expert in his subject, 
present their facts in admirable proportion. 
Ancient history has been rewritten since 
our work began, and useful as the Epoch 
Series have been for mediaeval and modern 
history, they have been more necessary for 
the ancient. Translations of the classics, 
and later, the Stories of the Nations, have 
brought the latest discoveries and fresh 
material to students whose training and 
opportunity would have prevented them 
from using the larger books of investigators, 
or the original productions of Greek and 
Latin authors. When the section for the 
study of American history was added in 1878, 
the prospect of making it interesting to the 
average student was small ; but here again 
new books bringing life and original docu- 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 29 

ments in simple and entertaining form ap- 
peared in quick succession. In all courses, 
we have made use of biographies, historical 
romances, poems, plays and magazine arti- 
cles, especially of those in "Littell's Liv- 
ing Age." The constant use of maps and 
historical atlases has been insisted on ; in 
some examinations, outline maps have been 
sent to be filled in. 

A few students of Latin and Greek have 
been members of this section, and some 
students, though nominally only studying 
history, have read the plays and poems ad- 
vised, in the original. 

For students so varied in age, opportunity 
and purpose, we have been obliged to offer 
in our lists many kinds of books, from those 
suitable for a mother studying with young 
children to those necessary for teachers who 
were working in earnest to take higher posi- 
tion in schools. 

In 1886, the study of Political Economy 
was matde a section of this Department. 
When Laughlin's text-book on the princi- 
ples of political economy appeared, we were 
furnished with the very book that we 
needed. In this section, the reports have 
consisted almost entirely of answers to ex- 



30 STUDIES AT HOME 

aminations, with occasionally short essays 
on given topics. The work of the first year 
was simply in the first principles of the 
science ; later, special subjects, such as taxa- 
tion, finance, etc., have been taken up, or 
students not caring for the practical appli- 
cation have continued with the principles 
and history. The advanced course most 
in demand has been one in social subjects 
taken with especial reference to their eco- 
nomic aspect. This was intended to be 
preparatory to practical charitable work. 
The subjects assigned as lessons have been 
Poverty, Crime, Punishment and Reform, 
Poor Laws, Trades' Unions and Coopera- 
tion, Charity Organization. 

The first heads of sections were appointed 
in 1879. Each head has had charge of her 
own work, recommending new teachers, 
overseeing their work by careful examina- 
tion of the regular reports, suggesting alter- 
ations in methods, adding new books, and 
assigning students to their correspondents. 

In order to secure a uniform standard 
among members of the Department, it has 
been the custom that new teachers should 
submit the work received from their stu- 
dents, with their corrections, to the head of 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 31 

the Department, and by this means she, and 
the heads of sections also, have obtained a 
knowledge of the capacity of each. The 
relations among all members of the Depart- 
ment have been uniformly frank and 
friendly. 

II. In view of the fact that in 1873 
Science was only partially recognized as an 
element in a liberal education, and the labo- 
ratory method was yet in its infancy, it 
seems an almost prophetic insight which in- 
cluded Science in the list of topics upon 
which courses were offered. It is undoubt- 
edly due to the influence of that great 
teacher, Louis Agassiz, that this forward 
step was taken, and it was by his advice, 
and with his persuasion, that the charge of 
the course was taken for the first two years 
by the woman who was at that time a most 
ardent advocate of the study of Science, as 
an elevating and enriching factor in educa- 
tion. Miss Lucretia Crocker had imbibed 
deeply of the spirit of Agassiz's teaching, 
and from the first adopted his watchword, 
" Study from specimens, not from books." 

After a few changes in direction, Mrs. 
K. H. Richards became in 1876 the perma- 



32 STUDIES AT HOME 

nent head of the Department. It grew from 
one student in the first year, and sixteen in 
the second, to its maximum of one hundred 
and thirty-nine in the fifth year, holding its 
numbers three years more. 

The list of subjects, at first only Botany 
and Zoology, was increased by the addition 
of Astronomy, then Mathematics, which, 
although offered as a preparation for Astro- 
nomy, became in demand for itself. Miner- 
alogy and blowpipe practice. Archaeology, 
Sanitary Science and Psychology complete 
the list. The whole was brought under sys- 
tematic organization and given great value 
by the aid. of many scientific men who were 
in hearty sympathy with the work, and who 
gave friendly help through the staff of teach- 
ers, several of whom were active workers in 
the various fields of science, and have since 
achieved distinction in their chosen lines. 

The Natural History Society generously 
furnished specimens in alcohol, fossils and 
shells. Thus it was that the story of Mo- 
ther Earth was told in sets of minerals, 
rocks, shells, plants and animals, which were 
loaned, given or sold to the students, and 
which circulated as freely as printed books. 

But in this as in other departments, it 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 33 

was not only in acquisition of knowledge 
that the correspondent, a name less cold 
and distant than that of teacher, was help- 
ful ; she often left the impress of her own 
strong moral character upon her students 
while leading them along the paths of science. 

From time to time individual students 
have been aided in subjects not on the list, 
in Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry and 
Physics. Biology also served as a first step- 
ping-stone to more than one now successful 
teacher and physician. It was only in 
exceptional cases that such help was given, 
for the difficulties of instruction by corre- 
spondence become evident, when the pa- 
tience of teacher and pupil is tried by long 
explanations in words several times re- 
peated, of what ten minutes in the labora- 
tory would have made perfectly clear. 

Miss Ticknor wrote : " It grows more and 
more apparent that Botany and Geology, 
and some branches of Zoology, such as 
Entomology and Ornithology, are very re- 
freshing to women. Those who, after push- 
ing the study of what we may call book- 
subjects pretty far in girlhood, and then, 
when entering on their life duties, having 
dropped them entirely, — as university men 



34 STUDIES AT HOME 

often do, — find, later in life, that the obser- 
vation of nature satisfies a craving, and 
calls them to a kind of work which is inspir- 
ing, while it gives them a delightful form of 
association with their children and with the 
men of their families." 

In 1886, in response to applications, a 
new section was added, that of Sanitary- 
Science, to " enable women whose cares and 
troubles are too often increased by ignorance 
of simple facts and laws, to protect them- 
selves and their households against the con- 
sequences of mistakes and carelessness. It 
aims, not to make women independent of 
trained specialists, but to enable them to 
know when and how the services of such 
specialists are needed to secure the health- 
ful condition of a house ; and to lead them to 
take an intelligent view of such matters as 
ventilation, drainage and heating." One of 
the annual reports gives the following : — 

" That our students pass on the help they 
receive has been abundantly proved through 
the experience of years, two examples of 
which, presented in letters, may be quoted 
here. One is the case of a student in Sanitary 
Science, in a western city, who has charge 
of the tenants in twenty houses, being thus 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 35 

thrown into closer relationship with families, 
some of whom are poor ; and who is also 
a member of two societies, a Hygienic Soci- 
ety and a Sanitary Society, with auxiliary 
branches in every ward of the city, and with 
no class or caste features, all being admitted 
to general meetings in a beautiful hall. The 
Hygienic Society was organized to aid the 
Board of Health in its efforts to ward off 
cholera last year, and to promote cleanliness 
in the city. Our student goes personally 
with the city sewer-cleaner to search for the 
causes of a typhoid case in a certain neigh- 
borhood ; she gets a book suggested by her 
S. H. correspondent, takes it to a sanitary 
meeting in a poor district, and reads from 
it materials which provoke discussion. She 
says in one letter, ' I am about to speak 
to-day to an auxiliary society, in a poor ward, 
about some of the difficulties in the way 
of cleanliness,' having been to the Health 
Board and examined a certain law. ' Stand- 
ing as I do between landlord and tenant,' 
she says, ' I see that each has rights that 
the other is bound to respect.' She is now 
turning her attention to food, and her Hy- 
gienic Society has arranged to take that 
subject for study next winter. She has the 



36 STUDIES AT HOME 

satisfaction of being able to say at last, ' So 
much remains to be done, and so little of 
our work is perceptible, that the uninitiated 
would never dream that anything had been 
done. But we, the workers, know that at 
least our city is much cleaner and safer 
than it was a year ago.' The same student 
writes, 'At the request of the Board of 
Health of a city some forty miles away, our 
President and I went out and organized a 
branch society. Further, a physician at the 
late State Boards of Health Convention 
asked to hear of our society, so I read be- 
fore the convention my report for the year. 
It was carefully listened to, and has been 
assigned a place in the coming printed 
report.' She adds : ' I thought that these 
items might encourage you, for I know how 
disheartening sanitary work is.' " 

Although not included among the subjects 
for study, the topic of personal health lay 
very close to Miss Ticknor's heart. Herself 
an invalid for many years, she knew well 
the effects of personal limitations and the 
possibilities of, to a great extent, overcom- 
ing them. It is not strange, therefore, that 
the excuses asked by the students owing to 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 37 

ill health should have attracted her atten- 
tion to this hindrance to the mental devel- 
opment of women. She wrote to many of 
the correspondents in the early seventies 
to ascertain facts relative to this subject. 
One letter shows her method of careful in- 
quiry : — 

" Will you be so kind as to give me the 
results of your experience, in your own 
neighborhood, with regard to what I will 
call preventable causes of ill health, espe- 
cially among the women and girls ? If you 
have read the report of our last meeting, 
you will perhaps see why I ask for this infor- 
mation. I want to know whether, among 
the people in your part of the country, sick- 
ness more frequently occurs from bad venti- 
lation, or from bad diet, or from monotonous 
occupations, or from bad drainage, which 
may be traced to ignorance, or disregard of 
the laws of health ? In different localities 
these causes may differ somewhat, and a 
woman like yourself, having experience and 
powers of observation, can, I believe, help 
me in this matter very much, to obtain data 
for useful application hereafter." 

In 1874, a tract, entitled " Health," was 



38 STUDIES AT HOME 

issued by the Society ; ^ it grew out of a sug- 
gestion made tliat we should take some step 
towards giving simple help in the matter of 
Hygiene. Nothing was thought of, at first, 
except to give students the titles of two or 
three books which could be recommended, 
and to beg them to give their attention to 
them. Works exactly adapted for the pur- 
pose were not, however, forthcoming. Then 
came the proposition of getting some one 
outside the society to write a primer of 
Hygiene. This, again, was found to be a 
more difficult matter than was at first sup- 
posed, and finally, the head of the Science 
Department and the Secretary assumed the 
undertaking experimentally. When, at last, 
a manuscript had been prepared, and sub- 
mitted to various critics, it was offered for the 
examination of two of the highest authorities 
on the subject in this commonwealth, and, 
being approved by them, was sent free to 
the staff and students. When a copy was 
sent to a student, herself a teacher, it was 
almost always accompanied by the Hampton 
Tract, called "Duties of Teachers," of 
which a number of copies were bought for 
the purpose. More than one thousand cop- 
^ See Appendix B. 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 39 

ies of " Health " have been given away, and 
over eleven hundred copies have been sold. 
The Woman's Education Association of Bos- 
ton paid it the compliment of an order for 
two hundred copies, and other orders have 
come from remote and unexpected quarters. 
Several students have written to ask further 
information on the subject of hygiene, one 
consulting us about a new house on a farm, 
of which the arrangements were intended to 
be most carefully based on the best sani- 
tary rules. 

It became one of the objects of the 
Society, as it presented itself to Miss 
Ticknor's mind, to be a help to delicate 
women, and to give young girls that which 
would prevent them from falling into ill 
health. The Health Tract was the expo- 
nent of this purpose, and in nothing does 
the work of the Society show more clearly 
its leadership and its foresight, than in this 
leaflet, which, although written twenty-two 
years ago, stands to-day almost as if it had 
been written yesterday. It was a constant 
surprise both to Miss Ticknor and the head 
of the Science Department, each time that a 
new edition was called for, to see how little 
change was needed. 



40 STUDIES AT HOME 

III. The Art Department began with 
five students in charge of Miss Eliza C. 
Cleveland, who had a great advantage in 
the assistance of her uncle, Mr. Charles C. 
Perkins, whose knowledge of art in various 
branches was devoted, in the later years of 
his life, to the service and education of the 
people of Boston. She was succeeded by 
Miss Julia B. de Forest, and she by Miss 
Alice D. Weekes, and later by Mrs. Pierre 
C. Severance. From the beginning the stu- 
dents took up the study with faithfulness and 
zeal. The methods of study were simple : 
the reader had a book sent to her, and at the 
end of a month was expected to send mem- 
ory notes on what she had read ; examina- 
tion questions were given on each book, and 
essays were required. Several times the 
students in or near Boston were taken, 
singly or in clubs, to visit the Museum of 
Fine Arts. 

The scheme of work at first included 
drawing from casts of parts of the human 
figure, and from nature, but the attempt 
to teach drawing of any kind by correspond- 
ence was soon abandoned, and instruction 
was given only in the history of art. The 
need of an extensive collection of illustra- 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 41 

tive books in this course was perhaps the 
chief incentive to the establishment of a 
lending library of the Society, and it was 
soon evident that the students supplied from 
the library were able to accomplish much 
more than those who purchased books for 
themselves. Reproductions of the works of 
old and modern masters, and Hamerton's 
Portfolio, with its admirable etchings, were 
circulated among them as early as 1876. 
Many collections were added from time to 
time, chiefly as gifts from the teachers in the 
Department. One valuable gift was Grimm's 
"Life of Michael Angelo," extended with 
many photographs. By 1897, there were 
seventy volumes of photographs and engrav- 
ings, illustrating different periods of paint- 
ing and sculpture and architecture. While 
a small fee was charged for the use of 
books, these collections were circulated with- 
out expense among the students, and they 
were urged to use them freely. During the 
twenty-four years of use, but five of these 
valuable collections were lost. 

In 1879, this course was divided into 
Sections : I. Preliminary Study of Art ; II. 
Ancient Art ; III. Painting ; IV. Architec- 
ture ; V. Sculpture ; VI. Engraving. These 



42 STUDIES AT HOME 

divisions continued until 1885, when the 
simpler arrangement of four sections was 
made : I. Ancient and Classical Art ; II. 
Early Christian Art ; III. Renaissance ; 
ly. Traveling Course. The latter sections 
grew more and more popular as time went 
on, and they were changed and enlarged to 
satisfy the demand. The study was diversi- 
fied by parallel courses of reading in bio- 
graphy or travel ; thus, a student of ancient 
Egyptian art was expected to read Miss 
Edward's account of her journey " A Thou- 
sand Miles up the Nile," and some of the 
best Egyptian novels of Ebers. In the 
study of the Renaissance, Symonds, Crowe 
and Cavalcaselle, and Fergusson were the 
chief guides, in addition to other standard 
books, and a thorough student was expected 
to become familiar with Dante and the po- 
litical history of the time. 

The Traveling course grew out of re- 
quests on the part of the students to be 
fitted for travel abroad ; the first request 
of this kind recorded was in 1879, when 
an invalid pupil asked as a favor to have 
her studies arranged as if for a journey in 
England, and this imaginary tour gave her 
so much pleasure that her correspondent 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 43 

felt amply rewarded for the special trouble 
taken. In 1883, it was adopted as a spe- 
cialty of the course, but it was not formally 
placed upon the circular until 1885. It 
proved an interesting subject for persons 
not strong enough for hard work, and, after 
the death of the student who first suggested 
it, her sister sent interesting particulars of 
the way in which she found solace, first in 
studying with the Society, and then in help- 
ing others to study. Her sister wrote : " We 
hardly knew whether to laugh or cry, when 
she called herself ' Cook,' taking people 
through countries she never saw. Lying on 
her sofa, or in her bed, with all kinds of ap- 
pliances of head-rests, arm-rests, book-rests, 
and pillows, by which she reduced illness to 
a science, she mapped out trips for stay-at- 
homes, and once directed a student what to 
see when she actually went to France and 
Germany. She kept up her courage and 
patience by her intellectual life, saying with 
Victor Hugo : — 

" ' What though the branch beneath thee break, 
Remember thou hast wings ! ' " 

The chief change in the Department in 
later years was the addition of a Music 
section. This was suggested in the early 



44 STUDIES AT HOME 

days of the Society, but tlie Committee were 
then very cautious in adding to the variety 
of the subjects offered ; it was felt that the 
tendency of women was to take up too 
many, and they were desirous to avoid this 
danger. Miss Ticknor, while admitting the 
validity of the general objection, expressed 
her opinion that, as the study of music as a 
mere accomplishment was very extensive, it 
would be well to do something to lift it to a 
higher level, and to show the literature con- 
nected with it, and perhaps interest a few in 
the study of the science of harmony. But 
deferring to the doubts of the majority, she 
quietly waited for ten years, when music 
was put upon the programme. In her report 
in 1887, she said that the purpose of this 
study was " to draw the attention of those 
seeking the acquisition of instrumental skill, 
or who perceive only the pleasures of the ear, 
to the intellectual and scientific side of mu- 
sical cultivation." Nine students entered 
during the first year, and were taught on a 
scheme of reading the history of music with 
schools, modes and forms, composers, instru- 
ments and performers, and a plan for the 
study of the theory of music. The success 
of the study showed the wisdom of adding it 
to the course. 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 45 

IV. The French Department began under 
the supervision of Miss Ellen F. Mason. 
Miss H. H. Ellis and Miss E. B. Richards 
succeeded her, the last serving for more than 
sixteen years. Various courses were laid 
out, from elementary to advanced studies, 
and correspondence, wherever practicable, 
was sustained in the French language. The 
number of students has been comparatively 
small. The aim of the course, as described 
at the Annual Meeting of 1879, "was to 
give the students a general idea of the im- 
portance and scope of our subject, and this 
object seems to have been met by requiring 
nearly every student to begin with some his- 
tory of the literature. These histories have 
varied in extent, according to the time, capa- 
city, or inclination of the student. Where it 
has been possible, this introductory reading 
has been followed by books representing the 
various periods and their authors, taken up 
in chronological order. Few of the students 
have been able to read beyond these works, 
which have brought us, as it were, only to 
the threshold of our subject ; and it is there- 
fore earnestly hoped that those who began 
upon our course will have been sufficiently 
interested to desire more knowledge of the 



46 STUDIES AT HOME 

rich and varied productions of the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries. Many of 
us are sensible that the ' inspiration which 
animated the creators of French literature 
has expired,' also, that much of its matter 
seems unsatisfactory ; but we surely must 
not neglect the literature of a nation, which 
can claim the honor of having been the 
court language of Europe for more than a 
century, and whose genius, heroism and in- 
tensity of belief led to one of the most 
important events in the history of modern 
civilization. These facts seem sufficient to 
make the study of French literature worthy 
a certain portion of our time and attention ; 
but perhaps a reflection upon the long and 
brilliant list of men whose facile minds 
have portrayed human nature (particularly 
the human heart) with such grace, beauty 
and delicacy of expression may render the 
claims laid wider and stronger." 

V. The German Department was for a 
year under Miss Elizabeth W. Perkins, then 
for twenty years under Mrs. H. A. Hagen. 
After her departure from the country in 
1894, it was supervised by Mrs. Gideon 
Scull, also a German lady, who had been 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 47 

interested in the work from the beginning, 
although prevented by other responsibilities 
from taking an active part in it earlier. 
Of Mrs. Hagen's retirement the Secretary 
wrote in 1894 : " We meet with a loss at 
this time which we feel to be a serious one, 
and one which withdraws from us a friendly 
sympathy of twenty years' standing, inas- 
much as Mrs. Hagen is about to return 
permanently to Germany. Her earnest and 
faithful work at all times, but especially 
through periods when it was difficult for her 
to keep it up at all, has won for her our 
sincere gratitude, and she will be deeply 
missed." 

The tnethods of study in this Department 
were similar to those in the other literature 
departments. As far as possible, the corre- 
spondence was carried on in German. A 
large proportion of pupils studied the history 
of German literature, reading, in connection 
with it, the works of various authors. A 
few took up other subjects with German 
text-books, thus combining the study of his- 
tory, music and some branches of science, 
with that of language. The Department 
was exceptionally well provided with native 
teachers, but it never attracted large num- 



48 STUDIES AT HOME 

bers of students. A letter written by Mrs. 
Hagen in 1897 will be of interest in this 
connection : — 

" I wish I had something to tell about the 
beginnings of our Society, but as I entered 
it only in the second year of its existence, I 
know nothing of the one in whose head first 
the idea of starting it arose. When I en- 
tered the Committee, everything was pretty 
much in shape, and only small changes in 
our by-laws were made, according to need, as 
the number of correspondents increased. At 
first they had agreed never to advertise, and 
allow a natural growth of the Society, but 
this was for three or four years extremely 
slow; and after talking it over with Mr. 
W. D. Howells, who was then editor of the 
' Atlantic Monthly,' he brought a mention 
of our work with a description of the yearly 
meeting, and that worked well. The ' New 
York Tribune ' was also interested in the 
matter, and from that time other papers also 
called attention to the Society at least once 
a year." 

VI. English Literature. This Depart- 
ment was kept by Miss Ticknor under her 
personal charge longer than any other, and 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 49 

her tastes and previous interests led her to 
have a peculiar interest in it always. As 
the number of students increased, the gen- 
eral work of conducting the Society as sec- 
retary took so much of her time that she 
was forced to give up the charge of this 
special work, and the later heads of the De- 
partment from 1875 were Miss Frances R. 
Morse, Mrs. W. H. Rollins, Miss Agnes G. 
Balch, and Miss Mary Morison, the last 
named for twelve years in all. During the 
sudden increase in 1876, one teacher alone 
started sixty pupils on their way, and main- 
tained correspondence with forty of them 
throughout the year. 

Miss Ticknor's first idea in arranging the 
scheme was that English prose writers should 
alone be studied. The first authors recom- 
mended were Hooker and Bacon, then fol- 
lowed Milton. That these really kindled 
interest may be seen by what one of the 
early students wrote : " During the past 
month I have read the ' Ecclesiastical Polity.' 
Hooker seems, sometimes, to take the rhythm 
of his simple expressions from St. Paul's lips, 
the syllables and accents of many Scripture 
verses fitting his sentences exactly. Hooker 
calls on all heaven and earth to back his 



50 STUDIES AT HOME 

argument, and testify to its truth, while 
Milton brings forward only some significant 
fact or illustration to carry the thought 
home. Many of the former's words are 
choice and strong, but all of the latter' s seem 
chosen with extreme care, and are so ar- 
ranged in groups or contrasted that the 
effect is very real." 

Soon it was felt that the students needed 
to have their higher faculties kindled by 
studying the great poets, and that no course 
of English Literature was complete which 
omitted them. While notes were taken on 
the best criticisms, it was always thought 
more important that the chief part of the 
student's time should be given to studying 
the writers themselves, and that the critics 
should be simply guides to show the way. 
A student wrote in 1878, after studying 
Spenser: "My little ones have forsaken 
Mother Goose, and neglect Hans Andersen ; 
while all the bedtime stories must be about 
the lovely Lady Una, with her milk-white 
lamb, or the brave Eed-Cross Knight. The 
other night, I noticed as my little boy handed 
me the poem that he first bent reverentially 
over it, and kissed the cover. As we were 
gathering ferns and flowers in the woods, I 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 51 

heard his sister question him as to whether, 
if we should meet the dragon there, he 
would be brave enough to be the Red-Cross 
Knight. ' I think,' he said, ' that this wood 
is so beautiful it must be God's front yard, 
and no dragon will dare to come into it. ' " 

In the beginning, each student was ex- 
pected to study a general manual of English 
literature, and then become acquainted with 
minor authors through the extracts in Cham- 
bers' "Cyclopedia of English Literature." 
The appetite soon grew with this food, and 
the demand for more detailed knowledge 
required a radical change in the working 
lists. More work was expected from the 
students, and they quickly responded by 
fuller reports and eager questions, which 
often put their correspondents on their met- 
tle, and required more time than heretofore. 
The days of many students for each teacher 
soon passed by, — the more elaborate work 
required more careful oversight ; and, while 
in 1878 there were ninety-five teachers for 
eight hundred and ninety-nine students in 
all departments, in 1897, forty-eight corre- 
spondents found abundant occupation in 
teaching one hundred and thirty-two stu- 
dents in the English Literature Department 



52 STUDIES AT HOME 

alone. The teachers who lived in or near 
Boston met together monthly, and their fre- 
quent discussions about books and methods 
were a great aid to good work. 

Instead of studying the authors piece- 
meal, as it were, the course was divided into 
sections and the writers grouped, so that the 
student might gain a sense of proportion and 
perspective, and not think, as was too often 
the case, that each author stood alone, like 
a tower on a plain ; for it must be remem- 
bered that most of the students for many 
years came to our Society full of eager in- 
terest, but with minds untrained by syste- 
matic work or literary associations. In the 
working lists, as last printed, the First Sec- 
tion was devoted to English literature before 
the reign of Elizabeth. The formation and 
growth of the language were studied with se- 
lections from Csedmon, Beowulf, Langland, 
and other writers, but no attempt was made 
to dig deeply among these early beginnings. 
The chief strength of the student was ex- 
pected to be given in this section to Chau- 
cer, and even those who seemed hardly ready 
to cope with his quaint - looking English 
soon found the sweet meat under the hard 
shell. Section II. included the Elizabethan 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 53 

period ; tlie dramatists were divided into 
tliree lessons ; the prose of More, Ascliam, 
and later of Bacon and Hooker, furnished 
the substantial part of the feast, and at the 
end of the period came the minor poets. 
Section III. treated of the time of Queen 
Anne ; Locke's essay on the " Conduct of 
the Understanding " helped to teach the stu- 
dents to think, while some of the early Eng- 
lish novels roused their imagination, more, 
perhaps, than the stately poems of Dry den 
and Pope. Section IV. began with Burns 
and Cowper under the head of Poetry of 
Nature and Man ; then came the essayists, 
Coleridge, Lamb, De Quincey, Landor ; the 
critics; the novelists, in three groups; the 
historians, and the poets, the course ending 
with Matthew Arnold. Towards the end, 
in 1895, the head of the Rhetoric Section, a 
graduate of Yassar College, prepared elabo- 
rate papers for the study of English ; more 
work was given in this section, perhaps, than 
in any other. Essays, abstracts and daily 
themes were required from the students, and 
their papers were thoroughly and carefully 
criticised by their teachers, all of whom, in 
the last year, were college graduates. 

The Shakespeare Section was, almost from 



54 STUDIES AT HOME 

the very beginning, separate from the general 
study of literature. Miss Caroline D. Swan 
was one of the first pupils in this section, 
when it was still under the direct supervision 
of Miss Ticknor, and afterwards took charge 
of the course. Mrs. C. V. Bemis succeeded 
her, and by her intelligent knowledge, and 
enthusiasm for the great poet, infected all 
her students with an equal interest. She 
believed very much in the close affiliation of 
art and drama, and the students were ex- 
pected to study Greek sculpture as a fitting 
preparation for an intimate knowledge of 
the plays. She retained her charge for two 
years, and always kept up a keen interest in 
the work till her death. She was succeeded 
by Mrs. H. H. Straight of Chicago; for a 
short time it was again in Miss Ticknor's 
hands, until Miss Morison took charge of it 
for the last ten years. The scheme for study 
in this section, as in the other literary sec- 
tions, has always been to give the chief 
strength and time of the students to the 
plays. Careful analyses have been made 
under the teachers ; a thorough study of lan- 
guage and construction has been required, 
many examination questions answered, and 
essays written on the different characters or 
plays. 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 55 

A letter from Miss Ticknor to one of her 
students in Shakespeare may be interesting 
in this connection : — 

" I am about to do something, without 
waiting for your leave, which will turn to 
your advantage in this matter. I am going 
to send your last two packages of notes and 
your last letter to a new member of our 
committee, and to ask her to write to you as 
to the best thing for you to do next in this 
study of Shakespeare. Except for the mere 
skeleton of method in studying ' Macbeth,' 
almost all the good hints and suggestions I 
have been able to make in our correspond- 
ence came to me really from her, who, 
being already a good Shakespeare student, 
devoted herself last year to this play, and 
sent me notes full of matter and even con- 
taining touches of originality, so rare nowa- 
days in Shakespeare criticism. I feel that 
I place you in better hands than my own ; 
and yet I would not do this had it not be- 
come necessary, for I do not like to part 
from one of my correspondents who has 
shown so much interest and appreciation. 
The fact is, that the secretary's work for our 
Society, which is my proper sphere, has be- 
come so large that I cannot do it, and at the 



56 STUDIES AT HOME 

same time do justice to students of English 
Literature and of Shakespeare, and attend 
to my other proper duties. In the begin- 
ning, when we were a feeble folk, and all 
was experimental, I said I would take the 
English Literature course until the whole 
matter should become too important, if it 
ever should. You will see by the inclosed 
report how it has grown, and by the new cir- 
cular how we are meeting the demand ; but 
you cannot appreciate yet what we gain 
in the new member of the committee. I 
feel sure that you will have no reason to re- 
gret the change so far as your Shakespeare 
studies are concerned ; and I hope that, even 
as secretary only, I shall not lose all inter- 
course with my friends in Kalamazoo." . . . 
The members of this Department were 
always very nearly the same as those of 
the Department of History. Beginning in 
1873 with sixteen students, the Department 
reached its maximum in 1881, with three 
hundred and ninety-eight pupils and fifty-six 
teachers, falling again in 1897 to one hun- 
dred and thirty-two pupils. Some of these 
students have been with us many years ; one 
has studied for seventeen years in this De- 
partment, and the teachers have even longer 
records. 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENTS 57 

Two letters quoted by Miss Ticknor in the 
Annual Report for 1883 give an illustration 
by no means unusual of the relation between 
teacher and pupil. " A pleasant coincidence 
has occurred of letters written to the Secre- 
tary, within four days of each other, by a 
student at the South and by her correspond- 
ent, one thousand miles away, at the North. 
The northern teacher says of the southern 
student : ' She has done even better this 
year than last. She is a most enthusias- 
tic student and an ardent lover of our So- 
ciety, also a most interesting correspondent. 
Her letters are so full that I could not put 
into any brief account the ideas conveyed in 
them. She wants to keep steadily on with 
me. She buys the books she studies, and is 
forming the nucleus of a nice little library 
there. She is full of ardent gratitude for 
what the Society has done and is doing for 
her.' The southern student writes : ' I also 
wish to thank you for the dear teacher to 
whom you assigned me. My intercourse 
with her is very delightful, and I feel the 
blessing of her guidance, as well as the sys- 
tematic course of reading and study, which 
I consider the great advantage of our So- 
ciety.' " These extracts illustrate, and en- 



58 STUDIES AT HOME 



I 



able us to estimate the help which has come \ 

to both students and correspondents, as well ;j 

as the personal friendships which have grown | 

up to make an important part of their | 

lives. i 



V. 

BEANCHES AND KINDRED ORGANIZATIONS. 

While the Society was yet in tlie experi- 
mental stage, it was believed that the best 
method of increasing its usefulness would 
be through branches established in various 
cities throughout the country. Miss Tick- 
nor made visits to New York with the view 
of having one started there. Several women 
interested in educational subjects were ready 
to teach, and a small library was started, 
but it was found more practicable to direct 
the work from the Boston office, and it was 
merged in that of the general Society. An- 
other promising branch was proposed in 
Schenectady. Much enthusiasm was shown, 
but, instead of leading to the establishment 
of a Home Study branch, a local club was 
formed, called the Society for Promotion of 
Useful Reading. Under the abbreviated 
name of " The Spur," this organization pros- 
pered for many years. 

These two experiments seemed to prove 



60 STUDIES AT HOME 

that it was not wise to duplicate offices near 
home, but it was thought that they might 
be needed in more distant places. In 1876, 
a beginning of this kind was made in Louisi- 
ana. Miss Annie Porter of that State had 
the matter at heart, and felt that much good 
might be done. She wrote to Miss Ticknor : 

Franklin, St. Mary's Parish, La., 18Y6. 
I took the liberty of consulting a friend 
who is intimately acquainted with the spirit 
of the Creoles here, about the books which 
they would be likely to read, and be able to 
read, without interference from their direct- 
ors and families. I have in consequence of 
his aid omitted several books which I should 
have thought desirable, and he has also con- 
firmed my opinion of the low state of edu- 
cation and intelligence among them. With 
my limited experience of young people's 
capacity, I am not sure that the list I now 
send will do in any way. The influence of 
the priests is so much less here than in any 
European country, and the girls are allowed 
so much more liberty, that I do not suppose 
there will be any real opposition if the 
books are selected with a little care. I have 
been gratified by finding that the superiors 



BRANCHES: KINDRED ORGANIZATIONS 61 

of the convents (French) to whom I have 
written are much interested, and have dis- 
tributed circulars among the girls and urged 
them to become members as soon as possible. 

The rules of the Society were altered in 
order to adapt them to the wants of this 
part of the country. Members were ad- 
mitted at the age of fifteen, the fee was 
one dollar, and the term was from November 
1 to May 1, in order to avoid hot weather. 
The courses proposed at first were History, 
Art, English, and French Literature. Very 
simple books were chosen for the branch, 
and a small collection of them was lent from 
the North. 

Notwithstanding the persevering interest 
of Miss Porter and her sister, the experi- 
ment lasted but two years, when it was 
abandoned ; and, on the removal of these 
ladies from the State, the students were 
assigned to other correspondents by the 
Secretary in Boston. 

A branch was also started in 1876 in Cal- 
ifornia. Miss Ticknor wrote, at the end of 
that year, to Miss Elizabeth H. Bradley, 
by whom a committee had been selected to 
organize a branch in California : — 



62 STUDIES AT HOME 

" Your California ladies will, I dare say, 
next year, become an independent Society. 
I think your work in San Francisco should 
cover California and Oregon, but should 
not come east of the mountains. I will 
notify all Californians who have joined us 
or asked for information ; and I will specify 
that visits are not to be made. I think you 
had better have a treasurer and secretary 
and librarian all in one, from the first, and 
keep all new fees for use in buying books 
and paying postage." She wrote in Janu- 
ary to Mrs. Barkan : " A letter just received 
from Miss Bradley gives me the comfortable 
information that you are willing to act as 
Secretary for our ladies in California. . . . 
Miss Bradley tells me you have already 
found friends of ability to help you. We 
can, I have no doubt, safely leave the inter- 
ests of the Society with you, feeling sure 
that you will, for your own sake, make judi- 
cious selection of those who shall share your 
labors, — looking not only to your own sat- 
isfaction in the present association, but to 
the welfare of students, and the future 
success of the Society, as it becomes neces- 
sarily more independent of us, its distant 
central association." . . . 



BRANCHES: KINDRED ORGANIZATIONS 63 

The California of 1877 and the following 
years was far different from the California 
of to-day, with its schools and universities, 
as is easily understood from the following 
letter written by Mrs. Barkan on February 
22, 1877 : " Your note of the 14th inst. is 
just at hand, and I write at once to beg you 
not to trouble yourself to send the printed 
acknowledgments for fees. Writing receipts 
has not as yet proved burdensome, nor do I 
apprehend that it will. When one consid- 
ers, not only our isolated position, but also 
the thinly populated condition of the coun- 
try west of the Eocky Mountains (they 
form our branch's boundary, do they not ?J, 
one ought not to anticipate the rapid growth 
and success that has attended the eastern 
Society." 

The California branch, though well man- 
aged, never numbered more than a hand- 
ful of students. There were active women 
ready to teach, but the applications from 
students were few and seemed to show that 
they were not yet ready for our help. Some 
excellent work was done, however, notably 
by the Lansing Club of San Francisco, a 
body of twenty-five women, who studied 
under the auspices of the Society for six 



64 STUDIES AT HOME 

years. There was a small branch library. 
When a member of the general committee 
visited San Francisco in 1894, the hospital- 
ity and cordiality with which she was greeted 
showed the enthusiasm and genuine interest 
of the staff. A lady who had charge of this 
branch for many years writes as follows : — 

Bangor, Maine, April 1, 1897. 
. . . During the ten years of my residence 
there [California] the changes were marked, 
and I do not hesitate to claim some of the 
credit to the influence of the women who 
worked for S. H. Few students, indeed, 
responded to our call, but such a band of 
enthusiastic associates could not fail to have 
a strong influence. For some reason, the 
privileges offered by Chautauqua met more 
ready response than those of S. H. Cali- 
fornia people are jealous of their reputation 
intellectually, and the present generation 
are reaping the advantage of this new ambi- 
tion, and it should be encouraged. . . . 

This short account completes the history 
of the offshoots from the parent stem of the 
Society, but the story of similar undertak- 
ings to which its work led can never be 



BRANCHES: KINDRED ORGANIZATIONS 65 

written. Letters of inquiry came constantly 
to Miss Ticknor, who was always ready to 
respond witli wise counsel and friendly sym- 
pathy. Educators in Sweden and Germany 
wrote, hoping to establish similar work in 
their own country; others spoke of the need 
of peculiar classes of people who could be 
specially helped by correspondence. Miss 
Ticknor was much interested in the matter 
of teaching the deaf mutes, as is seen by the 
following letters to a deaf student. 

" Have you seen in any of the periodicals 
published for deaf mutes, or in connection 
with their schools, that our Society has been 
enlisted in the cause of their education ? A 
former student of ours, at the West, herself 
a deaf mute, wrote to ask me whether we 
were not willing to make special arrange- 
ments for those whose education at school 
had not advanced there far enough for them 
to take up our courses of study. I answered 
that we were quite willing to do so, and she 
sent a notice to several papers. This led to 
my receiving letters. 

" We are beginning to see our way in this 
matter ; that is, we have received some in- 
formation about the studies in the schools 
and institutions, from which we can judge 



66 STUDIES AT HOME 

how best to make lists for the reading of the 
graduates. It is evident that by providing 
pleasant reading in history and literature, 
mingling solid and light judiciously, but 
requiring thoroughness, even in reading fic- 
tion, by examinations as well as memory 
notes, we may interest and improve some 
girls who would abandon all reading other- 
wise. Special lists and some additional help 
in correspondence are the only additions we 
need to make. 

" I write now to ask you whether you 
would like to make an experiment in teach- 
ing, by taking some of those who may ask 
our help in this way — some of the deaf 
mutes, I mean — under your care ? You 
have studied faithfully and well with us for 
three years, and are familiar with the work 
required in three different subjects. If you 
would like, therefore, to be of use in this 
way, you shall choose the subject you prefer, 
and say with how many you would like to 
correspond. The books used will be dif- 
ferent, but they will be simpler and more 
elementary. The list shall be sent to you in 
time for you to look over the books during 
the summer, so that you may feel quite at 
home in them when the students begin work. 



BRANCHES: KINDRED ORGANIZATIONS 67 

I do not yet know positively of any such 
students coming in, but a letter from a pupil 
of the Illinois Institution at Jacksonville 
tells me there is no doubt some of those who 
graduated this summer will join us. 

" You can hardly study so much with us, 
if you also teach, but I think you could still 
study one subject and teach one. 

" Think about this, and do not decide in 
a hurry. When you have made up your 
mind, let me know your decision. You need 
not be afraid to undertake it, as doubting 
your ability." 

Many years later, after Miss Ticknor's 
death, this student wrote as follows : — 

" The fifteen years of my connection with 
the Society to Encourage Studies at Home 
were among the happiest of my life. My 
first knowledge of the Society came at a time 
of much perplexity, when circumstances ren- 
dered a collegiate course impracticable, and 
its equivalent was difficult to find. Intelli- 
gent study and the stimulus of other minds, 
without publicity or absence from home, was 
very desirable for me, and possible under no 
other system. It exactly met the need of 
the moment. 

" My early teachers showed great wisdom, 



68 STUDIES AT HOME 

suggesting and encouraging at the right 
point, helping me to help myself, but in no 
sense doing my work for me. A pupil in 
three departments at once, I had a variety of 
training. But, through all, I recognized the 
'hand at the helm,' — Miss Ticknor, who 
always knew where I stood, how I had suc- 
ceeded, and how I had failed, and was ready 
with advice or encouragement, as the case 
might require. A brief word from her 
would often epitomize a book unknown to 
me, in a way that the closest of subsequent 
study would not contradict, as when she said, 
speaking of my English Literature course : 
' Would you not like to study Hooker ? He 
is grand, though solemn.' 

" Long before any one else, least of all 
myself, had discovered any fitness on my 
part for a teacher. Miss Ticknor thought she 
recognized such aptitude, and promptly put 
me in a position to test it, placing me at the 
head of a department for deaf ladies, and 
later giving me the charge of others. The 
organization of this department was a good 
illustration of Miss Ticknor' s broad-minded- 
ness, and, although it was not largely patron- 
ized, it was of great value to the few who 
joined. I cannot recall one of my twenty- 



BRANCHES: KINDRED ORGANIZATIONS 69 

five pupils who has not spoken of the Society 
in appreciative terms. 

" One of the pleasant things in my early 
experience was the interchange of letters, 
essays and botanical specimens with fellow- 
pupils. In many such cases, a friendship 
was formed which ended only with the death 
of my correspondent, and I have letters to- 
day from a large number of students whom 
I have never seen. 

" In the double relation of pupil and 
teacher, which I held for some time, I saw 
the twofold working of the system ; and if 
such intimate acquaintance rendered the de- 
fects more manifest, it also enhanced the 
excellences. 

" That the Society has done untold good 
to thousands of women, either directly or 
indirectly, I have no manner of doubt. 
While I deeply regret that it must be given 
up, there is a certain fitness in the closing 
of its existence with hers who was its main- 
spring ; whose energy and tact and kindness 
have been always our stimulus, and will be 
always our loving memory." 

Miss Ticknor had constant applications 
from young men asking to join the Society, 



70 STUDIES AT HOME 

which she was obliged reluctantly to refuse. 
She often talked of the necessity of a society 
for men on the same lines as hers, but there 
was no one with her enthusiasm and devo- 
tion to undertake it. At last in the autumn 
of 1880 she encouraged a graduate student 
at Harvard University to start the Young 
Men's Society for Home Study. He was as 
earnest as Miss Ticknor that it ought to be 
done, and felt with her that, if it were once 
started, the right man might be found to 
continue it. Miss Ticknor was his constant 
adviser, and she was never too busy to lend 
her experience and cordial cooperation in all 
of the many details of successfully launch- 
ing such a scheme. Great difficulty was 
found in securing teachers. Assistance was 
found mostly among the Harvard profess- 
ors, who had to snatch the time from many 
other imperative duties. The Society lasted 
but three years ; in the second year its maxi- 
mum number was reached, — one hundred 
and thirty-three pupils and seventy-nine in- 
structors. It was not considered that the 
results justified the labor required, and it 
was therefore discontinued, and its library 
and a small cash balance given to the Home 
Study Society. 



VI. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

I. Letters fkom Miss Ticknor. 

An account of the Home Study Society 
would fail of completeness which gave sim- 
ply the outlines of courses and methods ; the 
inner life which gave it its strength and 
power is best seen in the correspondence. 
The following letters from Miss Ticknor 
show the varied interests that enlisted her 
sympathy and the affection that existed be- 
tween her and her distant friends, who were 
often unseen to the end. 

TO MISS c. D. s. 

9 Pakk Street, Boston, 
February 19, 1874. 

I have availed myself of your kind sug- 
gestion that I should not feel pressed about 
writing to you, but I have done so quite as 
much from a wish to have time to think' 
about what you have done and are doing, as 
from the actual amount of my occupation. 



72 STUDIES AT HOME 

I am enjoying tlie feeling that I dare to be 
busy, for the first time in many years, during 
wMcli I have been an invalid ; and occasion- 
ally I find my various undertakings crowd a 
little upon one another, but I do not post- 
pone the work of our Society, except for the 
sake of doing it better. 

You are keen in your criticisms of style, 
sometimes a little hypercritical, I think ; but 
as you have taken up this specialty by w^ay of 
study, and have applied it to your own writ- 
ing, as well as to others, it will do no harm. I 
am glad the little story met with approval, and 
I think you were docile, if you really adopted 
almost all my corrections. It is a kind of 
story of which I, too, wish there were more, 
for the stories written for children nowa- 
days are usually very sensational, needlessly 
so, and full of vulgarisms. Education goes 
on in so many ways, apart from instruction, 
that this matter of stories is a more re- 
sponsible one than their authors generally 
think. The old-fashioned didactic, moral sto- 
ries are not palatable now, but children love 
descriptions of natural, happy, every-day 
life, without naughtiness and without excit- 
ing events ; while not only they, but their 
parents and nurses, can learn a great deal of 



CORRESPONDENCE 73 

the ways in which homes may be made good 
and happy, and may learn, by the mere 
habit of the ear, good English, too, as they 
do in well-educated families, without gram- 
mar. 

This little dissertation brings me to a 
question I want to ask you, and which I 
hope you will not take amiss. I want to 
know whether you have any conscious, defi- 
nite purpose in your intellectual work. 
You have acquired a great deal, and are 
now occupied in giving out, as well as in ac- 
quiring ; and I dare say you have some plan, 
of which there has been no need that I 
should know. Every one, it seems to me, 
must work with more pleasure, and with 
more effect, for having a path selected, or a 
specialty to pursue, and if you have not made 
choice, still more, if you have not a pur- 
pose, moral and intellectual, you will miss 
half the good to yourself and to others that 
your abilities might produce. I do not want 
to preach, but, having come into the place of 
literary adviser to a student more advanced 
than our Society contemplated having under 
its wing, I am seeking how best to fulfill the 
relations into which you have brought me. 

I think I will not attempt to judge your 



74 STUDIES AT HOME 

poetry. Prose is my branch, you know, and 
I am not bound to apply myself to the criti- 
cism of verse. One expression in your let- 
ter, however (being prose), I may take 
notice of. You say you have been grappling 
with the myriad difficulties of verse. It 
seems to me that, when verse presents myr- 
iad difficulties, it fails to have the true ring. 
It should almost sing itself, so far take shape 
at once, in the thought, that it seems inev- 
itable in its flow. As to rhythm intruding 
into your prose, if it does not come too 
often, it rather pleases the ear, and it is not 
remarked by one reader in a thousand. 

The proposal for essays, made in our cir- 
cular, was for papers which should be and 
should represent the result of a season's 
study in some one of our courses, and such 
papers would form a part of the process of 
study, much more than bright, consummate 
flowers of thought and criticism. If you 
should fancy taking up a group of prose 
writers, and expressing your opinion of them, 
in a simple and direct way, in an essay, we 
shall be glad to receive it, and give it our 
best consideration. But we do not look for 
this before May or June. 

You say you do not find materials for re- 



CORRESPONDENCE 75 

writing, because good thought and good 
writing go hand in hand. I think this is 
not a universal truth. Dean Stanley thinks 
well, but his style is painfully awkward. 
Many books of eighty and a hundred years 
ago contain good thoughts pompously ex- 
pressed. 

February 22. 

This has been detained beyond my inten- 
tion, but you will, I trust, pardon the delay. 
I think that you would like to hear that our 
little Society is flourishing beyond our ex- 
pectations. Our lists include forty names 
of students, scattered in Pennsylvania, New 
York and New England, and many of them 
are working with such zeal and success as 
to excite much interest on the part of the 
ladies with whom they correspond. 

We hope that our meeting in June will 
draw many of the number here, so that we 
may become personally acquainted. We 
think we can find resources in Boston to fill 
a day or two agreeably for our students 
of art and history, science and literature ; 
and if any one is planning a journey in this 
direction, we hope they may be able to time 
it so as to include the meeting. 



76 STUDIES AT HOME 

TO MISS C. D. S. 

9 Park Stkeet, Boston, 
September 22, 1875. 

Your last letter hit the nail on the head, 
and the more I get of your letters the more I 
wish that you were here, within twenty miles 
of Boston, and could be set to work in the 
Society to Encourage, etc., in the English 
Literature course. 

I have been thinking a good deal of your 
suggestion, which falls in with my wishes 
from the start, inasmuch as I have always 
wished and intended to lay traps for the 
butterflies, and only waited for practical 
hints and the proper time. My notion is 
that it will not do to put any such list or 
plan on the printed programme. Such an 
easy " elective " would draw off from the 
serious ones, and would lower our dignity. 
I think, however, we may try the experiment 
by letting some of our safe and zealous stu- 
dents know that we are ready to use such 
means for decoying the idle, and let them 
proselytize. 



CORRESPONDENCE 77 

TO MISS C. D. S. 

9 Park Street, Boston. 
May 10, 1876. 

On taking the wrapper from my copy of 
the " Atlantic " five minutes ago, I discovered 
that a certain paper on the " Quaintness of 
the Judicious Hooker " has at last made its 
appearance. I hasten to congratulate you, 
and hope you will receive both fame and 
more solid remuneration for your work and 
waiting. 

. . . We have adopted the plan, for our 
Society, of recruiting the Committee by in- 
dividual accessions in various places, and I 
propose to put your name on our list in 
a new edition of the circular, among those 
already there and the new ones I gathered 
in New York. Then I shall assign to you 
students in English Literature and in Shake- 
speare, not for Maine only, but scattered 
through the land. This, I think, is more 
interesting to both parties in the correspond- 
ence. I shall remain Secretary for the 
whole body, and abandon my literature 
work; but I am going to print, immedi- 
ately, a list of works and criticisms to be 
used in the English prose course, which will 
serve for outline. You can limit the number 



78 STUDIES AT HOME 

of correspondents of whom you will take 
charge, and, if you prefer they should all be 
residents of your State, I can, of course, so 
arrange it. 

I hope you will come to our Annual Meet- 
ing, June first, for many reasons. The new 
New York members are, some of them, com- 
ing, and they are interesting people, full of 
culture and activity of mind, and you will 
like to meet them. 

TO MISS C. D. S. 

Boston, January 10, 1877. 
Do not let people impose upon you, but 
tell them civilly (kindly will be your nature 
and habit) that you profess to " encourage 
study," not to be made a substitute for study. 
A question about Occam, or the meaning of 
a phrase of Bacon, is tolerably within limits ; 
but Pericles, Leo X., the Greek stage, and 
immigration to the United States, — gracious 
goodness ! are you to be an encyclopedia of 
universal knowledge, which they shall not 
even have the mechanical labor of taking 
down from the shelf ? Mrs. H. is rather fas- 
cinating, but takes very little heed to just 
claims on one's time, and Miss M. indulges far 
too much in the luxury of gushing. I observe 



CORRESPONDENCE 79 

that when she is not well, she is much more 
uncertain in her faith than when she is well. 
She has poured forth to me, in a way rather 
interesting, but a little burthensome. She 
takes decided advice very well, and is none 
the worse for being told she must try to look 
at things less obliquely. You had better 
not encourage her much, however. She has 
ability enough to clear her own way if she 
chooses to set about it, and I don't believe 
it is good for her to make confidantes of 
strangers in this way. This is rather un- 
gracious from me, for she professes an en- 
thusiastic affection for me, but I think it is 
well you should have this insight into her 
case. 

TO MRS. B. p. D. 

Newport, June 17, 1876. 
Your warm-hearted and interesting letter 
reached me just before I migrated for the 
summer, and made me regret more than ever 
that I must lose the growing interest of such 
a correspondence. The die is cast, however, 
and I have given Miss S. notice that she is 
to have the pleasure of interchanging liter- 
ary and other ideas with one of my most 
earnest and stimulating readers, who stands 
among the A I's in my book. I am glad 



80 STUDIES AT HOME 

you do not wish to leave me, and I thank 
you for saying such pleasant things about 
the Society. A friend, whom I allowed to 
see your last essay, says, " Such letters are 
truly encouraging, and really repay one for 
a great amount of exertion." So you see 
you can encourage the encouragers. 

My work as Secretary will deprive me of 
the opportunity of advancing into this kind 
of unseeing intimacy with new members, but 
I hope some of you, with whom I have 
already approached the land of friendly 
warmth, will now and then tell me what you 
are doing with my fellow laborers, and allow 
me to keep some insight into your intellect- 
ual interests, at least. ... 

I thank you very much for your little 
narrative about the life of my father, and 
for your eagerness to read it partly on my 
account. You will see by the preface that, 
after the first two hundred pages were 
printed, the work devolved on my mother 
and me. The materials were of such a kind 
that no great amount of original work was 
needed, and in the selections my mother 
took a most important share, copying with 
her own hand a large quantity, even more 
than was ultimately used. For twenty 



CORRESPONDENCE 81 

months this was a very absorbing occupa- 
tion. The footnotes alone required a good 
deal of careful work, and I found the cor- 
rection of the press laborious, for my fa- 
ther's own habit of accuracy made me feel 
responsible for every syllable and letter. . . . 

You say you presume you have done some- 
thing improper in writing so freely, but I 
hope you will not adhere to that opinion, but 
will write now and then in future with equal 
confidence and openness. I am delighted 
that you are so impressed with Hooker, and 
feel sure you will enjoy others of these old 
worthies exceedingly. You will find Miss 
S. an admirable guide in reading Shake- 
speare. She has made a most careful study 
of him; and of his "Macbeth," I might 
almost call it exhaustive. As for me, though 
Shakespeare has been in the air around me 
all my life, and I know him as one who 
knows those who have been familiar from 
childhood, I have never studied him deeply ; 
and to tell the truth, I think, in one sense, 
I know Dante better, having studied him 
more independently and with more of an 
individual devotion. 

So far as I can now foresee, the Society 
will, for some time, be my strongest interest, 



82 STUDIES AT HOME 

outside family and social ties and duties ; and 
if it grows this year as it did last, it will 
engross a good deal of time and thought. 
I inclose a report, which was distributed at 
our meeting, and has since received a post- 
script for those not present. The weather 
was lovely (I went off to a garden party out 
of town after the afternoon session), and the 
atmosphere of cordiality and readiness to be 
pleased, which every one brought with her, 
made the whole scene full of cheerfulness 
and vivacity. Each session lasted just an 
hour and a half, so nobody had time to be 
very much bored. In the afternoon we had 
about thirty guests, gentlemen as well as 
ladies. Mr. Eliot, our chairman, said some- 
thing I particularly liked: that whatever 
defects and deficiencies our Society may 
have, it must necessarily have two merits, 
it induces its members to choose and pur- 
sue a definite aim, and it insures them sym- 
pathy. . . . 

TO MRS. B. P. D. 

Boston, February 21, 1877. 
Your cordial letter has for a long time 
appealed to all my better feelings, whenever 
I have turned over the pile of unanswered let- 



CORRESPONDENCE 83 

ters, which can never be entirely reduced to 
nothing. ... As I re-read your letter it re- 
vives and vivifies the picture of an earnest, 
warm, energetic life, set, it may be, in a kind 
of seclusion, and craving some things which 
it would almost seem ought not to be with- 
held ; yet so much richer than many a life to 
which these things are offered^ not desired, 
that it may seem a source for the very covet- 
ing, which is its own temptation. The power 
to make and hold friends is a peculiar gift 
and blessing ; and many a soul, lonely in a 
crowd, thirsting in sight of springs and rills, 
hungering at the Barmecide feast, when ac- 
quaintances, admirers, even social intimates, 
are plenty, but friends few, envies the pos- 
sessor of that gift. 

Enthusiasm, too, which makes you go in 
a snowstorm to join a Goethe Club, puts 
warmth into every-day existence. I am sorry 
you do not understand German, for it is quite 
true one never gets the full flavor of an au- 
thor, except in the very words he used. Still 
you will enjoy him, even though you see al- 
ways the moral want and coldness underly- 
ing all. 

One thing in your letter, while I under- 
stand it and even read it with a certain 



84 STUDIES AT HOME 

sympathy, calls up a little comment which 
I will not hold back, all the less because it 
may call forth an answer from you. You 
say you do not let your neighbors know of 
your studies, lest they suspect you of neglect- 
ing your duties. It seems to me that, by this 
time, they must have practical demonstra- 
tion of the performance of your duties ; and, 
by silence about pursuits which they might 
be induced to share, you are to some extent, 
great or small, depriving them of an interest 
and incentive. Few can be supposed to be 
likely to share or to profit by the Goethe 
studies, but the wholesome English reading 
would, if they could be lured to it, improve 
and lift their characters, through their intel- 
ligence. 

You ought to be a missionary, and open 
their eyes gradually to the beauty and re- 
freshment of some higher intellectual interest 
than a newspaper or a magazine. A reading 
club for beginners, where history, illustra- 
tive fiction, and the literature of the period 
were studied, might be, has been in many 
places, made very attractive to the young 
girls and to the less cultivated elder women ; 
and such semi-solid reading leads soon to the 
appreciation of a higher and higher kind. 



CORRESPONDENCE 85 

Begin with a historical play of Shake- 
speare, or a historical novel of Scott, or 
James, or Miss Yonge, then bring in a chap- 
ter or two of a history of the period, then 
a ballad or a diary of the time described, a 
biography and so on ; and see how soon the 
plodding housekeeper, or the thoughtless 
girl, will be ready to sit down for a real 
study of some solid book. And all this 
would not be worth doing, if it stopped with 
the intellectual pleasure. You know how it 
strengthens and develops character, and 
enlarges sympathies and widens life, and 
should always do so, if rightly used. 

Do not fancy I am made up of moral lec- 
tures, literature and such. I went to a club 
last night, where the thing I enjoyed was 
not a rather stilted and commonplace paper 
on Keats, but an intensely funny French tra- 
vesties given dramatically in French, by a 
clever young amateur actor in costume, but 
without the advantage of scenery or stage, 
performing in the midst of his audience, — 
representing a young French apprentice 
cook, describing what he saw and misun- 
derstood of a performance of "Robert le 
Diable " at the Grand Opera, with snatches 
of the music, and absurd parodies of the 



S6 STUDIES AT HOME 

words and plot. The laugh I had has done 
me good for to-day, especially by giving me 
a good night's sleep. I expect to hear from 
you again. 

The Society flourishes. No new students 
can be admitted now. Forty names are 
down for next term. 

TO MRS. L. {an English friend). 

Boston, March 11, 1877. 

. . . Now I must tell you a little about 
my Society, which kept me so hard at work 
from September to February. I have rarely 
broken my rule of confining this kind of 
work to the morning before luncheon ; but 
when those hours are all consumed, the rest 
get crowded with what the rest of life re- 
quires. Between early September and early 
January, in four months, I received two 
thousand letters, every one of which required 
some attention from me, though I employed 
a secretary three hours a day, and had 
printed forms for answering many. Now I 
have only about fifty letters a week. More 
than ^YQ hundred and fifty fees have been 
paid this term, and, after the sifting of the 
winter, we have still more than five hundred 
students and nearly six hundred correspond- 



CORRESPONDENCE 87 

ences. About one hundred and twenty are 
old students, taking a second, third, or fourth 
term with us ; and about sixty are teachers. 

Of course, with this increase, we have in- 
creased our staff, in fact have more than 
doubled it, since last spring, and we now 
have Associate Correspondents in San Fran- 
cisco, who take care of students in Califor- 
nia and Oregon, and an agent in Louisiana, 
taking care of many at the South. We 
have gradually adopted this, as our mode of 
growth, to have groups of Associate Corre- 
spondents, each one under the direction of, 
and reporting to, the experienced heads of 
departments here. These are not brancheSj 
and no one seems to start independent so- 
cieties. Ladies in Philadelphia, and else- 
where, are preparing to be our associates, by 
being first students for a while. 

It is all very interesting, and seems both 
to be wanted, and to do good. 

An American girl in Japan writes to me, 
wanting to join us as soon as she is old 
enough, — she is now sixteen, — and says 
she belongs to a club of girls, English, Irish, 
and Chinese, in Tokio, who read together, 
sing together, and draw together, and end 
their afternoon meetings by playing games. 



88 STUDIES AT HOME 

She says there are book-clubs for foreigners 
in Tokio (Yeddo) and Yokohama ; and good 
booksellers in Yokohama, so that she can 
get any books she needs. It takes a month 
for her letters to reach me ; but from San 
Francisco and from Louisiana my letters are 
a week on their way, so that to get an an- 
swer within the United States requires a 
fortnight, and all by rail. 

In the Society we are receiving applica- 
tions for admission next autumn, and have 
already fifty names down, and most of these 
applicants receive lists of preparatory work. 
The students are of all sorts, rich and poor, 
cultivated and half educated. We do not 
seek the rich, because they should employ 
teachers ; but many of them seek us, because 
they want sympathy in their intellectual 
purposes, and they take our reading in addi- 
tion to lessons, if they live in cities. There 
are fifty of us employed in the work now, 
and we must have many more next year. . . . 

TO MRS. B. p. D. 

Boston, March 27, 1877. 
I was perfectly delighted with the result 
of my letter ; except in so far as I feared I 
had induced you to make too great an exer- 



CORRESPONDENCE 89 

tion in writing. All you say of the difficul- 
ties in the way of rousing interest for any- 
thing above the Martha views of life, in a 
certain class of women, and of the folly of 
attempting what cannot be done, is wholly 
acceptable to me ; and the work you have 
done, the efforts you have made, the results 
you have reached, are altogether exhilarat- 
ing. 

The young people are, of course, those 
among whom the best work can be done, 
and I congratulate you on what you have 
done and the ingenious means you have de- 
vised for drawing audiences. The genera- 
tion now rising must stand well on the 
shoulders of the preceding one, since such 
things are done to lift it. There is a judge 
in one of our municipal courts, living on a 
small salary (and by the way accumulating 
with his small means a very remarkable 
collection of autographs), who has, in the 
suburb of Boston where he lives, for twenty 
years given two evenings a week to readings 
with boys and with his neighbors who are 
artisans and tradespeople. He began by 
collecting the boys who had graduated from 
the High School, and catching them the year 
after they were graduated ; and doing that 



90 STUDIES AT HOME 

in successive years, lie was obliged after a 
few seasons to devote tlie second evening to 
those who had married and wanted to bring 
their wives. It is most pleasant to think 
how seeds are being sown everywhere in this 
way, and I beg you will keep me informed 
of what you do, in your Bible reading, your 
miscellaneous reading, and in any other 
form. 

I have no doubt your German studies will 
be a complete success. Learning words 
while making buttonholes is a capital pro- 
cess. The last time I was abroad I met at 
the German baths, where I was sent for my 
health, a German girl from North Germany, 
who was studying English, and who had 
always in her pocket a tiny book full of 
English words with their definitions, copied 
by herself, and which she took out and 
studied at all spare minutes. I always ad- 
vise beginning a language through its prose 
rather than its poetry. What do you take 
first? . . . 

TO MKs. B. p. D. 

Boston, January 15, 1878. 
I cannot tell you how much your Christ- 
mas and New Year card touched me, with 



CORRESPONDENCE 91 

its warm and cheering wishes, its encourage- 
ment and inspiration. Let me thank you 
earnestly for expressing, in a way so fitted to 
elevate and purify all motives and purposes, 
your sympathy in the work with which you 
have now so long identified yourself. You 
have succeeded most happily in blending an 
interest with our undertaking and a personal 
kindness for me, so that I must count you 
among my friends. I am well, and con- 
stantly rejoice that my restored health suf- 
fices for the work that grows so fast on our 
hands ; and the work thrives so that it is 
reaching vast dimensions, without seeming 
to lose its essential element of individual 
sympathy. 

I have been wishing for some time to find 
a moment to inclose for you the paper I 
here lay in. It is a scheme for a local So- 
ciety which, being adapted to draw in the 
many to whom reading has to be made very 
easy, may ultimately bring forward the few, 
who may join us and profit by our serious 
work. This is the intention in Schenectady, 
and the plan seems to me so good that I 
would like to see it tried elsewhere. The 
ladies in Schenectady went about personally 
inducing women and girls to join their So- 



92 STUDIES AT HOME 

ciety, and when I heard last they were hav- 
ing great success. Lists of pleasant books, 
accessible in the neighborhood, need to be 
prepared, of course ; but the associating to- 
gether and reporting frequently promise to 
produce interest and perseverance. 

These societies and clubs springing up all 
over the land are delightful. 

I am always glad to hear from you, though 
you always have to forgive my delay in an- 
swering. 824 students, 100 persons on the 
staff, 1,800 letters in three months, these 
are my apologies. Still, I am not entirely 
absorbed in this. Life is full in other ways. 

TO MES. B. p. D. 

Newport, June 21, 1878. 

A delightful letter of yours has been long 
unanswered, but it has not been unappreci- 
ated, as you will perceive when I tell you 
that I ventured to use some passages from it, 
without names of course, in my manuscript 
annual report, and that the anecdote of your 
little boy, which I thus used, brought tears 
to the eyes of some of the listeners. Your 
letter was truly interesting, and gave me and 
others a great deal of pleasure ; besides serv- 
ing an excellent purpose in showing how we 



CORRESPONDENCE 93 

reach other lives than those of our immedi- 
ate students, and how children's tastes may 
be turned to the high old classics, when tact 
and enthusiasm unite in the influences that 
surround them. 

We had a delightful annual meeting ; one 
hundred and twenty students present of vari- 
ous ranks and degrees, from hard-working 
teachers to pretty city girls in spring dresses, 
all cordial and frank in their greetings, all 
seemingly interested in what occurred. Over 
forty of the lady workers were present also, 
and the meeting in its various phases lasted 
nearly three hours. All these and about 
twenty-four guests were seated in our two 
parlors, some of the staff being obliged to 
content themselves with seats in the hall. 
About two hundred were seated within sight 
and hearing of the speakers. . . . 

TO MRS. K. p. B. 

Newport, July 15, 1879. 
... I have examined your nicely drawn 
plans, and have shown them to others, and 
we have felt a sincere interest in what you 
are doing. The sensible manner in which 
you proceed and your care to procure the 
best sanitary arrangements make you wor- 



94 STUDIES AT HOME 

thy to become an example to your neighbors, 
while you are surely obtaining the best 
chance for health and comfort. 

Your question about the destination of 
the room on the first floor, which may be 
either library or kitchen, finds me in need 
of one more statement before I can give a 
decided opinion. One point seems to me 
clear : that the size of the basement room 
is better adapted for a kitchen. The first 
floor room, only twelve by fifteen, is small 
for such purposes for a family of fourteen, 
while its position near the sitting and dining 
rooms, and the view you speak of, make it 
delightful for a study-room, and the non- 
studious members of the family will be at- 
tracted to it. My doubt is this. As you 
are yourselves so much in your kitchen, is 
a basement room dry enough to be healthy 
for you? I infer that it is mostly above 
ground, if not wholly, and you have tried it 
through one winter. If you feel that there 
is no risk from dampness, I should vote 
for staying where you are, and making the 
first floor room a library. 

You are, indeed, building a large and airy 
house, and I can understand your enjoying 
the processes of building and finishing it. . . . 



CORRESPONDENCE 95 

Mrs. Richards told me she had referred 
you to me on a question about taste in dress. 
It is hard for any one to lay down general 
rules, but I can throw out a few suggestions, 
and if they strike you as worth considering 
we can go farther together. . . . 

All this is suggestion, and is for you 
alone. I have not time enough to be will- 
ing they should be handed about, except in 
your own house. . . . 

TO MRS. B. p. D. 

Newport, June 16, 1880. 
Has any one told you that your little 
paper on Shakespeare, the one you sent to 
Miss C, as it were, for her private reading, 
was read at the annual meeting two weeks 
ago ? You said various modest and deprecat- 
ing things in your letter to Miss C. ; but she 
had the sense to forward the whole to me, 
and I pride myself on the perspicacity which 
decided me to offer it to my associates in the 
committee on essays, who agreed with me 
that it should be read. I hope you will not 
quarrel with us for the course we took. One 
of your assertions about the paper was, that 
it was too personal to be in good taste ; and 
yet it was partly the personal element in it, 



96 STUDIES AT HOME 

which we did not think too prominent, that 
led to our decision. 

Of course we had to find plenty of ideas 
beside, and a valuable tone of thought and 
judgment ; in short, the essentials for an 
utterance of one who should represent the 
influence we desire to exercise. 

Still, it is through the essays read at our 
meeting that the students speak, not only to 
each other and to us, but to the guests whom 
we invite to show their sympathy with us, by 
their presence. The personal anecdote and 
reference to your own experience, with which 
you began were, therefore, not out of place. 

I read it myself, and when I had finished, 
I saw Mr. Longfellow and Dr. Holmes, close 
by me, nodding to each other, smiling ap- 
proval, and I leaned down and asked them 
if they liked it. I wish I remembered just 
what words they used ; but it is enough to 
say they expressed pleasure and satisfaction 
in what they regarded, simply, as an outcome 
of our work among our cleverest students. 
I had just time to tell them something of 
your doubts and of the hindrances under 
which you wrote, and then had to proceed 
with the business of the meeting. Let me 
say, by the way, that were I not sure of you 



CORRESPONDENCE 97 

as a wise and reticent woman, I should not 
dare to mention these distinguished names, 
for their owners do not like to be quoted. 

TO MRS. E. K. C. 

Boston, Deeemlber 18, 1885. 
. . . We are really doing something 
unique, because we are making our wi^rk 
very thorough, while we make it pe:^etrate 
more into distant homes than any <^^<5hool can 
do which merely sends back^^ a student, ad- 
mirably grounded perharjg, but having the 
stores she carries hor^e so divided that the 
members of the family know probably less 
of her knowleci^-B than when it can be made 
week by ^/e'ek the subject of family sym- 
pathy. / 

/ TO MISS L. F. 

Boston, 41 Marlborough Street. 
/ January 13, 1886. 

i . . \ passed September at Newport, and 
c'^me to put my house finally in order, on 
t|ie first of October. It was a good deal of 
work, though interesting. The slowest and 
i^Qost fatiguing part was the arrangement of 
jbooks. My share of my father's library 
^proved to be a good deal more than four thou- 
/sand volumes, and they are placed in the part 



98 STUDIES AT HOME 

of the old bookcases which I brought with 
me, in a sunny room with two long windows, 
where I have many other reminiscences of old 
days. The whole house is furnished with the 
old possessions, and I have only bought some 
carpets and thin curtains. The familiar fur- 
niture looks strangely new in its new posi- 
tit?iis and grouped differently, as things from 
all pa>jts of the old house come together in 
some oiixe room here. The house, only 
twenty feet Wlide, and in a block, is very con- 
venient and conri^ortable, and being about 
eighty feet deep, the rooms are large. I have 
two of the old servants,' the cook and house- 
maid, and the third womaiT J have, has lived 
so long with one of my frienrfj^ that I am 
quite familiar with her. My rooms' look very 
pretty and cosy, my friends are vei;Y kind 
and thoughtful, and I am not allowed i^o be 
too much alone. ... * 

MISS TICKNOR TO MISS S. T. «^ 

Boston, January 11, 1887t ' 
. . . "We have plenty of books on Englisj'^ 
history, and I will send you one some da}^- 
But I want you to see and understand tha t 
the label on the outside of our parcels is foi- 
the protection of our books, to secure our^' 



CORRESPONDENCE 99 

getting them back if they stray away. Then 
I ask you to consider whether your sensi- 
tiveness to the remarks of the "people at 
the office " ought fairly to prevail against 
the safety of our books ? We do not put 
on the label from an arbitrary rule to please 
ourselves, or to make ourselves known. I 
cannot see why any one should be ashamed 
of being known to read good books, sent 
to her by a friendly society, and for which 
she pays, or why she should mind a little 
chaff. 

I can understand your wish for fresh in- 
terests in a care-full life, and I shall be glad 
to contribute to such pleasures for you. As 
a proof of this I will send you to-day a book 
of travels in Europe, which belongs to me 
and which I lend to you ; and as it is mine 
and not the Society's, I will take the risk and 
send it without the label. You must, how- 
ever, write to me when you receive it ; and I 
hope at the same time you will tell me you 
are reasonable enough to see that you should 
not object to our books being protected by 
the label. 

The book I send to you is written in a 
humorous spirit, and you will sometimes be 
puzzled, perhaps, to know when the writer is 



100 STUDIES AT HOME 

in earnest and when not, but even in Ms fun 
there is a great deal of truth. . . . 

II. Letters to and from Miss- Ticknor 
AND Members of the Society. 

These letters have chiefly to do with per- 
sons whose peculiar requirements or interests 
brought them into unusually close relations 
with Miss Ticknor. One such case was that 
of a young girl in the South not old enough 
to join the Society, whose entire education 
Miss Ticknor directed for many years. They 
never met until the little girl had grown to 
womanhood, and came to New England with 
her husband and child to see the teacher to 
whom she owed so much. The following 
letters written to her by Miss Ticknor show 
something of the relations between them. 

MISS TICKNOK TO MISS L. F. (a Studeut). 

Newport, Sept. 14, 1884. 
. . . There is a great deal in your letter 
which shows me what your mind and life and 
difficulties are, and I am anxious to help you 
to see all these in the right light. Your mind 
has been developing rapidly ; the competi- 
tion at school has stimulated your ambition ; 
a year's life devoted wholly to study, and fol- 



CORRESPONDENCE 101 

lowed, by a glimpse of university society, lias 
farther excited all those faculties and parts 
of your nature which tend to restlessness 
under limitations, and to some exaggeration 
of the delights of the intellect alone. Some 
wise person said, " To be content with limi- 
tations is freedom ; to desire beyond those 
limitations is bondage." This does not 
mean that we may not have aspirations, but 
that we must not allow them to tyrannize 
over us, or to go beyond reason. The in- 
tellect is a high and noble part of us, but it 
needs to be balanced by the affections and 
all the duties and responsibilities that flow 
from them, or it will be selfish and despotic, 
and the result will be one-sided. What we 
have to do is to make cJiaracter^ which in- 
cludes mind, but is far larger than mind. 
You are acting on this principle at this mo- 
ment in staying at home to help your parents 
and to teach your brother and sister, and 
you will find, your reward very soon, I be- 
lieve, in recovering the right balance and 
proportion of your wishes. . . . 

Neither I nor your parents would desire 
otherwise than that you should use all avail- 
able strength and means in cultivating your 
mind, — with a view always to the good of 



102 STUDIES AT HOME 

others, for knowledge is a treasure of whicli, 
like money, we are stewards and have to 
give an account. 

MISS TiCKNOR TO MISS L. F. (a student). 

Boston, March 18, 1886. 

. . . You will learn after a little expe- 
rience two things, which you ought to 
consider conscientiously : one is, how much 
strength you have to use, how much, I mean, 
you can rely on from week to week ; and 
how wrong and wasteful it is to exceed or 
even live up fully to this amount of strength. 
Some old divine says, "My business is to 
live as long as I can, as well as I can, and to 
serve my Lord and Master as faithfully as I 
can, until He shall think proper to call me 
home." So you see I believe in husband- 
ing our strength and prolonging our useful- 
ness. . . . 

With regard to the value- of strict rules 
well enforced I agree with you, and I asked 
a successful teacher here the other day your 
question, and she also agreed with you and 
with me. I think it is not well to make 
many rules, or to insist on many points, 
but enforce a few steadily. When certain 
fundamental rules of conduct have been so 



CORRESPONDENCE 103 

enforced that they are perfectly understood 
and rarely broken, then others can be intro- 
duced which will raise manner and behavior 
to the next higher level, but do not worry or 
weary pupils with many details. A firm 
hand is almost always welcome to children 
and dependents. . . . 

MISS TICKNOR TO MISS L. F, (« student). 

. . . But while you are surrounded by 
the works of God in nature and human life, 
and have a few books to guide your powers 
of observation, your intellect may be always 
growing ; and it is a fact that a few of the 
best books, thoroughly mastered, do more 
good to the mind than a whole library of 
mixed works. . . . 

Please bear in mind that, while I want 
you to have a well-trained mind, as a means 
of usefulness, and such opportunities of in- 
tellectual enjoyment as may come to you 
without the sacrifice of any rights of others 
or of your own highest standard of duty; 
I think a woman, whose only objects of 
desire and aspiration are intellectual, is 
a woman of stunted nature. A character 
made up of intellect, affection, sensitive 
moral perceptions, and reaching up to spirit- 



104 STUDIES AT HOME 

ual heights, is what a woman needs ; and 
such a woman at the head of a household, 
no matter how secluded her home, seems to 
me to have an ideal sphere. Every situa- 
tion has its opportunities for discontent. 
One craves the privileges of a city life, with 
its libraries and museums. Another, who 
has these, craves European travel, and the 
pleasures to be had there more than at 
home. Another longs for the quiet and lei- 
sure of a country home, with books and 
science, but with freedom from the demands 
of society. Each has to learn to make his 
or her own lot, with its limitations, happy 
and rich by his or her own character. 

Another interesting student was a colored 
girl from the North, who was teaching 
school in Maryland, and at the same time 
struggling to become a writer. Miss Tick- 
nor's kindness and thoroughness in looking 
over her manuscript were unfailing. No 
detail was too minute to be criticised, and no 
trouble too great to be taken. At last a story 
was printed, and the door once opened she 
became, in a small way, a successful author. 
Her last printed story was in "Harper's 
Monthly;" soon after its publication she 



CORRESPONDENCE 105 

was married, and of late years nothing has 
been heard from her. 

FKOM MISS E. L. {a student). 

RocKviLLB, Md., November 8, 1884. 
. . . There is something else that I want 
to trouble you about, which is quite apart 
from the Society. I think I informed you 
in the beginning of our acquaintance, that 
I was a teacher working for twenty -four 
dollars a month, that I lived in Massachu- 
setts, where I was educated in the common 
schools, and that I belong to the despised 
race, the colored people. When I was an 
ambitious girl in the New Bedford schools, 
I forgot I was colored, and I dreamed many 
dreams, and saw many visions of what I 
would do and be by and by ; but, like many 
women with fairer faces, I have buried all 
these but one, and that lonely one is expir- 
ing; yet I cannot let it die as the others 
did, and how can I keep it alive when it is 
a hope which must be fed on encouragement, 
and I have had so little of that? I was 
determined to be a teacher and a good one. 
They say that I am ; my dream is to write 
something fit for publication, but I fear the 
same sort of determination which made me 



106 STUDIES AT HOME 

a good teacher, will never make me write 
anything fit for other eyes than mine to see. 

I have no one to tell me carefully whether 
anything I write is fit to send to a publisher. 
There are a few friends to whom I might 
send, but they are full of enthusiasm for 
me, and they overrate my abilities. I can- 
not trust them as I would one who knew me 
less. So this summer, while spending my 
vacation among the hills in one of the upper 
counties of Maryland, I wrote down some 
things which I saw and heard, and instead 
of destroying them as I had hitherto done, 
the thought occurred to me that I might send 
them to you, and perhaps you would tell me 
just what they are, and what they are not, 
and I would then see the folly of chasing a 
shadow ; and I write to know if you will per- 
mit me to send them, if you will look them 
over at your leisure, and send me your 
opinion. 

I beg you will forgive the liberty I take 
in thus troubling you, a stranger. I know 
that I have no claim upon you except that 
of sympathy, and I have no right to intrude 
that claim. To wish to trouble you with 
my miserable hope is a poor return for your 
kindness, but I have no one else to ask. 



CORRESPONDENCE 107 

FROM MISS E. L. (a student). 

I received tlie returned manuscript and 
your very kind letter. Not many events of 
my life have given me as much pleasure as 
the knowledge that the papers I sent were 
not altogether wretched and unreadable. It 
is a hard matter for me not to feel unduly 
elated, when you say that you think the style 
and subject good ; and as yours are the first 
commendatory words that I have ever re- 
ceived from a person whose judgment can 
be relied upon, I think them doubly valu- 
able. 

I have entirely rewritten the story, ex- 
panding it somewhat as some thoughts and 
old recollections came to mind. I visited 
Len and Emily at Christmas, and talked 
over their wedding with them. Len told me 
some of his thoughts relative to the affair, 
and I have inserted them, though in a dif- 
ferent dress. 

I hope the story is improved a little, and 
I return it to-day, and I beg to return the 
stamps, the cost of the postage in sending 
it to me. I rather like the looks of my 
essay in its printed form, but I see where it 
could be improved. But I would like to say 
in explanation that I had colored people in 



108 STUDIES AT HOME 

my mind wlien I wrote it. You can hardly 
appreciate the different estimate in which 
colored people are held in Maryland and 
Massachusetts. In this state there is enough 
of the old feeling left to put most that we 
do in a ridiculous light, and to make us feel 
our inferiority as much as possible. 

As I shall never have my name recorded 
in the temple of Fame, do you think it will 
matter if my name goes to the story ? Will 
you be so good as to act in that matter as 
you deem best ? As to my circumstances, 
I am a colored woman, raised and educated 
in New Bedford, a fact I am very proud 
of, and I teach a public school in Mary- 
land. I am trying to represent what I see 
and know among my own race here, and the 
only effect I hope to produce by my writing 
is, that those who are better favored than we 
are will be able to understand a little better 
that we do have joys and sorrows and hopes, 
though we differ from them in everything 
but the fact of being human beings. 

I hope that kindness will enter the heart 
of some editor, and that he may be prevailed 
upon to take the story, and that the next 
one I write may be far more worthy of your 
kind approval. 



CORRESPONDENCE 109 

MISS TICKNOR TO MISS E. L. (a student). 

. . . Since you have referred to Len and 
his family in your letters as living people, 
and to their wedding as a fact, I want to 
know what effect it may have on them if 
they are aware that you have published 
their story. Will they like it, or will they 
not ? It is not safe to trust to their not 
hearing of it, as many unlucky authors have 
found out to their cost. At the present day 
there is no security from such possible dis- 
covery, and it is better to be prudent and 
make sure that no offense will be taken. 
You do not want to get into unpleasant re- 
lations with your neighbors, so please make 
sure of your ground. . . . 

Above all, make sure that " Len and 
Emily " will not feel hurt and create un- 
pleasantness for you. You make their con- 
duct such a good example and so instructive, 
that if they can understand it in that way 
they will be satisfied. 

FROM MISS E. L. 

RocKviLiiE, Md., March 6, 1886. 
I regret putting you to so much trouble 
by what may look like culpable neglect, or 
indifference to the feelings of others, on my 



110 STUDIES AT HOME 

part. " Len and Emily " are living people, 
and their marriage a few years ago and the 
main points of the story are facts. But the 
names I have given there are fictitious, their 
real names being Wesley and Ann Ewell, 
and the facts in the case are arranged in 
such a different dress that they would hardly 
realize their share in them. I thought of 
this when I wrote the story, but I am very 
glad you mentioned it. But to make assur- 
ance doubly sure, I have ascertained that 
neither of them object to having their small 
history made public, both being a little 
proud of it ; and " Emily " inquired with a 
good deal of relish whether her name would 
really be in a book. . . . 

I hoped that you would find a name for 
my little creation. I was at a loss what to 
call it, and I thought that I asked you in 
my first letter to christen it. The name 
suits me, and to say that I have made it in 
the least instructive is praise enough. 

FKOM Miss E. L. (a student). 

RocKViLLE, Md., June 6, 1886. 

I have received your good letter and the 
precious check. My first feeling when I saw 
it was perfect happiness, and I was in a 



CORRESPONDENCE 111 

high state of gratification for some moments ; 
but after that had subsided and quieter 
thoughts came, I was more than half sorry 
that I had received any money for it, for if 
it had only been received and not paid for, 
I might, perhaps, by and by write some- 
thing that would really be worth something. 

However, I am delighted to get so much 
money. It makes one or two things pos- 
sible that were doubtful before, for it brings 
a summer school in near view, and I saw 
it in visions before. I think I shall spend 
the first money I earned by writing, in try- 
ing to learn more. I shall keep the en- 
velope and all the papers in memory of the 
event. 

The " Christian Union " came, with my 
name in capitals at the head of a certain 
column. It took a little effort to realize that 
the name was really my own, and that the 
story under it was really my own composition. 
I read it aloud to two old friends, who seemed 
to enjoy it very much. I did not tell them 
that I wrote it, so they commented upon it 
without restraint, and found that Len 
and Emily, and especially Brother Walker, 
had numerous resemblances among their 
friends. 



112 STUDIES AT HOME 

I have put away the paper with the other 
sacred relics. Your two letters are among 
them, which I have read many times, and 
expect to read many times more, for they 
are helps to me. . . . 

Miss TICKNOR TO MISS E. L. {a student). 

I have read and re-read your story care- 
fully, and have considered how it may be 
improved without too severe handling. 

And now you must let me deal openly 
with you. I wrote to you two days ago that 
the story was not inferior to " Len," and I 
still say it is not inferior in composition or 
graphic power, but it is less agreeable, less 
interesting. This arises, in the first place, 
from its sadness being unrelieved. In the 
second place, it grows out of a few touches of 
what, for want of a better word, I must call 
bitterness. The story is pathetic, and the 
reader should be kept in sympathy with its 
pathos, not be led to pause and inquire of 
himself whether certain phrases are harsh, 
possibly unjust. I think these passages can 
be omitted without loss to the real meaning 
of the whole. These passages also are not 
in keeping with the facts you tell. The 
general indifference of the sisters to the 



CORRESPONDENCE 113 

well-being of their hired servants, which is 
really a common trait of human nature, as 
common when the servants are white as 
when they are colored, once described, needs 
no heightening touch; but, if it did, the 
incident of the glass of wine does not serve 
that purpose, because we know Miss Susan 
was poor, and had an invalid sister for 
whom she got the wine, and we learn later 
that her mind was so preoccupied by the 
anniversary of her frightful calamity, that it 
was a wonder she remembered at all to ask 
after old Agnes, and order fine bread to be 
made for her. 

Leave out the two passages I have marked 
for omission, and then expand the cheerful 
ending of the story, with the outlook into a 
happier future for Letty, and a backward 
glance at her mistaken judgment, and I 
think it will be decidedly improved. 

Now some practical remarks on your 
manuscript. 

Anything that is to be printed must abso- 
lutely be written on one side of the paper 
only. Nothing written as this is would stand 
a chance of being accepted for publication. 
"Through the Gates," "Len," as you call 
it, was copied with a typewriter, on alter- 



114 STUDIES AT HOME 

nate pages, by a friend of mine before I 
sent it to anybody. 

Then the handwriting must be larger and 
clearer. Mr. Mabie and others, who read 
manuscripts sent to them for publication, 
have not time to puzzle out imperfectly writ- 
ten words, and a clearly written manuscript 
will be accepted when a badly written one 
is rejected, simply because the reader cannot 
stop to find out whether the ill-written one 
is good or not. 

In your handwriting it is almost always 
hard to distinguish between " a " and " o." 
You remember that in " Len " I thought 
Miss MoUie's name was Miss Mallie. On 
the first page of " Letty " the word " oaks " 
looks very like " rake." 

You said in your note to me that you had 
to write it as you saw it. Now you have 
done that ; and the next thing is to write it 
so that other people may like it; so that 
Mr. Mabie may accept it, and so that the 
impression left on the reader's mind may be 
a sweet and wholesome one. 

Compassion and sympathy are not excited 
by stings and little bitter references to ill 
doings. The facts gently mentioned do 
their work of conveying the idea of suffer- 



CORRESPONDENCE 115 

ing and its causes, and if you wish the im- 
pression to remain clear, you must not blur 
it by trying to deepen it. If the story of 
Uncle Jake and bis children, and the gen- 
eral picture of the poverty and neglect in 
Pine Hollow, do not affect the reader, the 
other passages will not do it. 

I shall send you back the story to be copied 
and improved, and I believe you can make it 
much better than it is, so much so that it 
shall be acceptable. Still, if it should not 
be accepted for publication, you must not be 
discouraged, but try again. Every one who 
writes for the public has to take reverses 
and refusals, and yet push on. You had a 
success last spring, and you may well hope 
for another, later if not now. 

The practical reason for writing only on 
one side of your paper is the convenience of 
the printer, but as you can see yourself, it 
is also easier for mere reading. 

When your manuscript is ready again, 
send it to me, but send to me with it a note 
to Mr. Mabie offering him the story for his 
paper, the " Christian Union ; " and you 
must remind him who you are, what you 
wrote, and what he wrote to you, for it is 
not reasonable to suppose that he remem- 



116 STUDIES AT HOME 

bers the circumstances and tlie writers of all 
the stories he prints in his paper. You 
must suppose that he has forgotten you, but 
a few facts will recall you and your story. 
I will forward your manuscript and your 
note. 

FROM MISS E. L. {a student). 

ROCKVIIiLE, Md., 

December 16, 1886. 

How can I thank you for your kindness ! 
I had been trying to devise some plan to 
give my faithful little children some plea- 
sure for Christmas, but money, even a little 
of it, was so scarce, so that I was about dis- 
couraged. The very morning your letter 
came I was meditating a plan I had formed 
over night of having a festival, and with 
the proceeds buying some presents for my 
school. Your kindness will make that un- 
necessary, and the gifts will be all the more 
appreciated from such a distance. . . . 

The children are delighted, most of them 
having never seen a tree. I have seen but 
two, never one with lighted tapers, so a 
pleasure awaits me, as well as the rest. 

There are seventy-one scholars attending 
the day school now, four having left. . . . 



CORRESPONDENCE 117 

As usual my words do not express what I 
want them to, but, dear Miss Ticknor, you 
must know that I thank you. 

There were other colored students also, as 
is seen by the following letters. One was 
helped to come from the South to Boston to 
the cooking-school. Some years later came 
the following account of her. 

FROM MISS A. F. A. {a correspondent). 

Marietta, Ga., April 1, 1891. 
... I think you will be interested to hear 
of the influence our Society has exerted on 
one special student you once placed under 
my care, Adaline M., the colored woman 
who came to Boston one summer (1883, I 
think) to study in the cooking-school. She 
is now in Atlanta, always commanding the 
best place in her business. She has never 
lost the impulse her connection with our 
Society gave her. She comes once or twice 
a year to spend the day with me ; looks at 
the books and pictures ; then goes into the 
kitchen and makes me some special delicacy. 
In the afternoon I take her a country walk 
which she greatly enjoys. There is a very 
sincere friendship between us. . . . 



118 STUDIES AT HOME 

FROM MISS J. H. G. (a correspondent)' 

Andover, Mass., 
October 21, 1881. 

There is a colored woman here in Ando- 
ver, about thirty years old I should judge, 
who has spent two years at the institution 
in Hampton, Va., and has obtained there 
a good common school education. She is 
married here, and has two children, but is so 
fond of reading and study, that she " makes " 
time for them, as they are " all the comfort " 
she has. 

She seems bright and intelligent and talks 
well, although she does not use perfectly cor- 
rect English. She is ambitious to go on, 
and says she would be glad to study, if she 
had any one to teach her. The question is 
whether there is anything sufficiently ele- 
mentary in your course to benefit such a 
person, and whether, if there is, you would 
be willing to take her in charge, provided, 
of course, that the necessary expense is 
paid. I don't know that it makes any par- 
ticular difference what she does, as long as 
she does something, inasmuch as her taste 
has not yet been developed. . . . 



CORRESPONDENCE 119 

FROM MISS J. H. G. {a correspondent). 

Andovek, November 4, 1881. 

I thank you sincerely for the kindly Chris- 
tian courtesy with which you have met the 
proposal I made in regard to the colored 
woman I described to you. I wish you 
could have seen her eyes shine when I told 
her about it this afternoon. She is ready 
and eager to begin. . . . 

She says she prefers to pay the fee of 
two dollars herself. It was my plan to pay 
it for her if necessary ; but I think it 
would be better for her to do it than to 
have me pay it for her, or to have you 
remit it. . . . 

The following letter from a student and 
correspondent in one of the western states, 
and Miss Ticknor's letter of inquiry, writ- 
ten in response to it to another member of 
the Society, tell of one of the cases where 
true charity and learning joined hands. It 
is pleasant to know that the invalid recov- 
ered somewhat later, was married and had 
a home of her own. 



120 STUDIES AT HOME 

FROM MISS B. S. {a correspondent). 

Spruce Hill, May 12, 1884. 
May I tell you something about one of 
your students ? I am afraid she does not do 
herself justice. It is Miss E. C. of L. She 
is an invalid and a great sufferer, and very 
poor ; so poor that she cannot have needed 
medicine, and even the purchase of postage 
stamps is a burden to her. I have never 
seen her, but we have corresponded for some 
time, becoming acquainted through the S. 
H. She is confined to her bed, and could 
have no fire in her room until near Christmas, 
for want of wood. Some one gave them 
some wood, and then her father had to pack 
it to the road on his back, being unable to 
get a team to do it. Their house is unplas- 
tered, a poor old shell, and it is no wonder 
E. suffers from rheumatism ; she also has 
some hip disease and has suffered with a 
cancer on her face. Her father and mother 
are neither of them strong, and a younger 
brother is also a suffering invalid. Even 
their home, poor as it is, is not their own, 
her mother holding a life lease of it. I can- 
not but think from what E. has told me, that 
her father is lacking in enterprise or ambi- 
tion, or something. I know sickness is ex- 



CORRESPONDENCE 121 

pensive, but it seems to me their surround- 
ings are largely the cause of the sickness. 
It is a wonder E. has any courage to study 
at all, but she seems to enjoy it, and says 
she must do something or she would go 
crazy. She does some fancy and crochet 
work for others, thus earning a little money. 
She did five dollars' worth for one woman at 
one time, and never received any pay for it. 
She was a teacher before her hip was hurt, 
and had a nice little library, but that was 
destroyed by fire. She usually seems cheer- 
ful, but sometimes is very despondent. She 
has received warm praise from her corre- 
spondent in the S. H. for work done this 
term, but was unable to read the last book 
she had, and says her father objects to her 
getting more now, it takes so many stamps. 
We have lent a great many books to her, 
sending stamps to return them with, and 
tried to help brighten her life a little. I 
think one can scarcely do anything very sub- 
stantial for her as she is situated ; if she were 
alone it would be different. I hope I have 
not violated her confidence by writing to you 
thus. You were always so kind to me and 
seemed so ever ready to aid me in any way 
you could, that I have ventured to tell you 



122 STUDIES AT HOME 

about her. The good the S. H. has already 
done is, I think, beyond estimation; and 
wherever it is known, it must have started 
the ripples in the sea of life that will roll 
on through all time, and who shall say not 
beyond time ? I know it has been of great 
benefit to me, not simply in book knowledge, 
but in other ways. I wonder sometimes 
what my life would have been if it had not 
been for the S. H. I thought it a great 
question decided when I decided to join. I 
still think so. . . . 

MISS TICKNOR TO MISS M. A. P. 

Nkwpokt, R. I., August 5, 1884. 

I am going to address you now as an old 
friend, one long attached to our Society, and 
who will, I believe, be ready to do a good turn 
for another and more recent member. My 
topic must also be in a measure confidential. 
Having said this much, I shall proceed with 
the assurance that you will help if you can, 
and that, if you cannot, you will say so with- 
out letting the matter go farther. 

There is a student of ours in an adjacent 
county to yours, whom we admitted free, 
because we found she could not afford her 



CORRESPONDENCE 123 

fee or books, and we find that she is a great 
invalid. I cannot find any letters from any- 
one recommending her as a free student, 
but we probably had such. If you had any 
hand in it, forgive my short memory, and 
let it make no difference. 

I want to have her case looked into, to see 
whether we can help her practically. Her 
home must be in a very small place, for it is 
not in map or gazetteer, so far as I can find. 
. . . She and her family might not at all 
like to be regarded as objects of charity, 
and for this reason I apply to you confi- 
dentially, yet wishing to make her life plea- 
santer to her. She was once a teacher, but 
lost that occupation because she lost her 
health. She had some books and they were 
burned. She seems to suffer a great deal 
at times, but has a craving for intellectual 
interests. I believe she can do some light 
work, crochet and so on, and is glad to earn 
money by it when she can. 

Now, can you find out more about her, 
and can you interest persons in her case 
who are near enough, and wise and charitable 
enough, to look after her somewhat ? We 
shall continue her as a free student, and 



124 STUDIES AT HOME 

supply her with books, and I shall try in 
such ways as I can to add to her small plea- 
sures ; but it seems to me that, unless there 
are obstacles which I do not know of, there 
may be resources for her nearer at hand, 
chances of medical treatment or of remuner- 
ative work, which may be available if she is 
known. Will you tell me what you think 
can be done ? . . , 



FROM MISS F. T. {at first a student and later a corre- 
spondent). 

Frederick, Maryland, 
July 31, 1880. 

The seventh annual report having reached 
me duly, and having been read with in- 
tense interest, the idea of contributing my 
share of information as to the usefulness 
suggested itself, and shall be acted upon 
immediately. After my first two years of 
study, my positive proofs of advantage 
gained were so evident that I induced seven 
others (scattered in different states) to 
join the Society ; and now each one thinks 
she cannot do enough to thank me for hav- 
ing pointed out the way to so much and so 
great intellectual enjoyment. One of them. 



CORRESPONDENCE 125 

a student in the art course, has, through 
the assistance of her correspondent, been 
able to dispose of her paintings at most 
advantageous rates, thus realizing a dream 
of her life. Others have obtained books 
through the Society which, in all proba- 
bility, could never have come into their 
hands in any other way, and which for 
long years they had cherished the desire to 
see. 

Meanwhile I was teaching a class of thir- 
teen in modern history, and saw, step by 
step, what invaluable aid my S. H. study 
was in inspiring them with a vivid inter- 
est and clear ideas, while the auxiliary list 
suggested many delightful books, which I 
gave them to read outside of school hours. 
Eight of these pupils came back to school 
after graduating, an almost unheard-of thing 
in Frederick, and pursued a systematic read- 
ing of history with me. Two other large 
classes I also succeeded in interesting by 
means of my " Society work." In social 
intercourse the influence of your work has 
been felt here. The books that I have pur- 
chased while reading with you have been 
loaned until nearly worn out. . . . 



126 STUDIES AT HOME 

FROM MISS C. E. P. (a student). 

North Weare, New Hampshebb, 
August 10, 1880. 

... I came home from the meeting in 
June very much encouraged, and with the old 
passion of my childhood thoroughly awak- 
ened. Late as it is in life, I want to do 
what I can for myself ; possibly I, too, can 
be a helper some time in the future, who 
knows? With no advantages here, I had 
drifted into an aimless way of living. The 
changes in my home leave me somewhat 
mistress of my own time at last, and S. H. 
is to me an inspiration almost. I must of 
necessity work slowly, but I shall be drift- 
ing in the right direction. I have lived 
always with an inside longing for something 
different; life was a burden to be carried 
cheerfully, yet I never quite conquered the 
feeling that the burden was heavy. S. H. 
has taken away that feeling, and, before I 
was aware, the load was gone. 

I have written thus of myself, not because 
my individual experience is of sufficient im- 
portance to interest any one, but because I 
believe the world is full of people with the 
same wants that I have, and it may be some 
satisfaction to know how fully you are sup- 
plying them. . . . 



CORRESPONDENCE 127 

FROM MKS. H. (a student). 

Dakota, November 2, 1880. 

I am sitting on a table in a fearful mess 
because we are trying to clean bouse, so 
excuse. 

Some one banded me tbe little book on 
" Healtb." Feeling tbe need of just tbat, I 
read it immediately. All tbat I tbougbt 
wben it was finisbed was, " It was kind in 
ber to send it. Ob, bow I wisb I bad tbe 
power of expressing my tbougbts as sbe 
bas." I bave studied and read almost every- 
tbing upon Healtb or bow to keep it, but bere 
comes tbe puzzling question : How to make 
otbers live by wbat you yourself know to 
be tbe best way. You and otber intelligent 
women say, " Motbers and wives, upon your 
sboulders rests tbis great responsibility of 
making your bome ones strong in mind and 
body." Yes, but do you bonestly know 
from experience all tbat you profess to 
teacb? Have you really lived in two or 
four small rooms witb little cbildren cling- 
ing to you, witb twice sixty duties for every 
sixty minutes of tbe bour, revolving in your 
mind until you cannot tell wbicb to do first ? 
Witb backacbe, and beadacbe, and well- 
nigb beartacbe, witb a longing just to creep 



128 STUDIES AT HOME 

off somewhere and rest one hour, and then 
have you found your half hour for study or 
pleasant reading ? Oh, I see this daily all 
about me, and these are no ignorant drudges, 
but lovely ladies, and they add to all of this 
mean or often drunken husbands. Ah, I 
count it grand of them that they are brave 
and wear a smile, for it seems to me their 
poverty and overwork would crush out all 
life. I tell you if there is one moment in 
the week theirs, they cannot make the poor 
mind or body do anything but stand still, or 
I would say, lie still. 

I have in my mind a sweet woman and 
mother, who lives in the cunningest log 
house, where there are two rooms. As soon 
as you enter the first room, which answers 
for bedroom and sitting-room, you recog- 
nize the marks of refinement. And how 
things shine ! How pretty the children look ! 
How tired the mother looks ; yet I always 
go away saying, " She wears a continual 
smile, and has on a clean dress, white ruffles, 
and pretty tie at any time of day." She 
washes, she irons, she scrubs, she milks and 
pickets her cow, she makes butter and bread, 
and cooks, and washes horrid pots and pans. 
She mends, sweeps, cuts, sews, knits, darns. 



CORRESPONDENCE 129 

Her husband has lost his money in these de- 
lusive gold mines. He leaves at six o'clock 
in the morning for his work as clerk in the 
traders' store at the Post, two miles away, 
and she says, " From then until ten at night 
I never sit down, excepting to eat." . . . 



FROM MRS. T. {a student and a school-teacher in the 
South). 

Lewiston, North Carolina, 
September 28, 1888. 

I hope you will excuse the liberty I take 
to try to interest you in our local affairs, 
but seeing an opening here for a large school 
and a good one, and seeing and feeling the 
sad necessity for some one to go forward in 
this matter, I have taken this arduous task 
upon myself. I give one hundred dollars 
and my services free. I have put tuition to 
a mere nominal sum, to get the poor children 
and a state appropriation later on, but this 
session we must carry it on ourselves, unless 
we can get outside help. Our people have 
almost lost their crops for five successive 
years. This year the destruction was terri- 
ble, especially on Roanoke Kiver, where our 
plantation lies. To show you the loss, Mr. T. 
will lose over three thousand dollars alone, 



130 STUDIES AT HOME 

others in proportion. I am not able to do 
more for our school. The people I am reach- 
ing are small farmers, generally mortgaged 
to the merchants for a support; the bone 
and sinew of our land, generally families of 
former wealth, reduced by the war, they are 
not able to educate their children without 
help ; this I am trying to afford them. . . . 

I wish to request a small contribution 
from our " S. H." students (I believe in 
the power of " littles "), but do not know 
how to reach them. Could I ask a contri- 
bution of one dollar ; let it pass through 
your hands and you deduct ten per cent for 
our library ? I can give the best of refer- 
ences. ... 

I have over fifty pupils, with two teachers 
employed at twenty dollars per month. I 
may get the one hundred dollars allowed the 
free school, which lasts only four months 
in the year, but that is doubtful. I may 
get a state appropriation when the legisla- 
ture meets, but that is doubtful. Any sug- 
gestions you can make will be thankfully 
received. 

Six years later she wrote : — 



CORRESPONDENCE 131 

ALSO FROM MRS. T. 

February 2, 1893. 

... I am so mucli obliged for your in- 
terest in my school ; I do assure you it would 
never have existed but for your work in the 
S. H. Ours is hard work, but I intend to 
persevere in it, as long as God gives me 
strength. How strange the connection be- 
tween this little deserted village and Boston, 
your home. But moral and mental electri- 
city put in motion by love to God and fellow- 
man knows no bounds. 



FROM MRS. M. {the mother of a student who had died 
recently). 

May 30, 1884. 

... I feel that in some way she is help- 
ing you especially. I cannot tell you how 
her whole heart went out towards you and 
your noble work, while living, and I thank 
you from my heart for all the good you 
have done that dear child, helping to make 
her life, early saddened by sickness, happy 
here and hereafter. The pursuit of know- 
ledge brought great joy to her heart. When 
she was sixteen, a severe sickness in Cam- 
bridge prevented her from attending school 
three years, and you can imagine what this 



132 STUDIES AT HOME 

S. H. must have been to her later in life. 
I find in her diary often such words as 
these : " It makes me cry sometimes with 
joy when I think what this home study has 
done and is doing for poor girls." 

FROM MISS M. E. C. {a correspondent). 

New Albany, Indiana, 

July 28, 1888. 

... I have long thought our Society was 
of greater benefit to the country than almost 
any other one thing. There can be no 
better proof of this fact than the many other 
somewhat similar societies to which ours 
seems to have given rise. I know some- 
thing of the workings of a large society 
which has probably drawn some members 
away from us, by easier work and more ex- 
tensive advertisement; the social features 
connected with it seem to make it especially 
attractive, at least in small towns. For all 
these reasons, it reaches a class of persons 
whom we can rarely expect to reach ; and 
though I sometimes feel inclined to doubt 
the efficiency of its methods to bring about 
great intellectual results, still I have no 
doubt of its having done much good, and I 
like to think of its benefits, as well as those 



CORRESPONDENCE 133 

of all similar societies, as being due, at least 
indirectly, to our own dear S. H. Yet more 
than all do I prize the grand work accom- 
plished, year by year, in a direct way by our 
Society, and I cannot imagine a time when 
it will not be needed. For my own part, as 
a student, I can most truly join my voice to 
that of the student whom you quote as say- 
ing, " I wonder what my life would have been 
like if it had not been for the Society to 
Encourage Studies at Home." (I cannot 
seem to help writing in this enthusiastic 
strain about the Society whenever I write to 
you, and I am not at all sure that I ought 
not to apologize for being tiresome.) 

The following letter from an invalid was 
one of many that awakened sympathy. One 
of Miss Ticknor's friends, a prominent phy- 
sician, became interested in her, and through 
his treatment she became stronger and more 
able to cope with the difficulties of her life. 

FROM MRS. R. E. W. {a student). 

September 8, 1890. 

Your kind note received to-night. Yes, I 
have been a member of the Society three 
times ; once I broke down from nervous 



134 STUDIES AT HOME 

prostration, induced by study and other 
causes ; the last time my grandmother was 
sick, and died after a long illness. 

. . . My friends are all gone out into the 
world, and there is no one left here with 
whom I can read or talk or hold any inti- 
mate or sweet intercourse. I have tried to 
keep up my studies alone, but have done 
very little. I was never strong, and have 
not been so well since last fall. I am forty 
years old. Everything is against my study- 
ing: I have formed no correct habits of 
study ; my health, grandpa, my work, which 
must be attended to no matter how sick 
I may be, or how much I may be up with 
grandpa. I am postmaster, and my salary 
is about one hundred a year, we must live 
on that, but, Miss Ticknor, I am slowly 
starving to death, and I feel as if I must 
have some interest outside these walls, be- 
yond this town, or I cannot go through the 
coming fall and winter. My hopes are all 
dead. The hopes that brighten other wo- 
men's lives cannot come to me. Books are 
all that is left to me. I am a very ignorant 
woman, and I never expect to become an 
educated, refined woman. I am too old, as 
I said before. I can try and fail. . . . 



CORRESPONDENCE 135 

FROM MISS. L. E. K. (a correspondent). 

May 16, 1892. 
... I have enjoyed the American history 
very much this year, and I dare say I have 
learned more about it than any of the stu- 
dents. You may be interested in one little 
thing which is hardly worth putting in my 
report. A cousin of mine here, a rather 
clever and educated fellow, became so inter- 
ested in my work that, with a little urging, 
he organized a class of younger persons for 
the study of American history. I gave 
him the benefit of your lists and maps. I 
wish you might have seen the class. He 
put them through on such original lines, 
making them think instead of cram facts, 
that the results quite dazzle them. They 
do not know it, but they are all S. H.-ers, 
and I hope to get some in regular line next 
year. . . . 

FROM MISS A. C. H. (a correspondent). 

Tokyo, Japan, 
April 30, 1894. 

It seems very long since I knew anything 

of the S. H. Indeed, it has been one of the 

strangest things in this strange winter to be 

so entirely without any sort of connection 



136 STUDIES AT HOME 

with these magic letters ; I shall be very- 
glad to get back to them. But, and this is 
a but that I wish I might leave out, it will 
have to be in a very limited way ; I feel that 
I must make my withdrawal from the charge 
of Section I., Course 3, a permanent one. I 
have come to this decision with great reluc- 
tance both selfishly, because it means giving 
up one of my greatest pleasures, and be- 
cause it will leave just that much more for 
some one else to carry. ... If you will 
allow me, I should like not to be quite out 
of the S. H., but to keep three students in 
Section I. . . . 

May I trouble you for the name and ad- 
dress of the general secretary of the S. H. 
in San Francisco ? Or, perhaps, you would 
kindly have a circular sent from there to 
Miss S. K., Tokyo. Miss K. is a young 
Japanese pupil teacher in whom I am much 
interested, and who I think might profit 
greatly by one of the S. H. literature 
courses. She has been reading with me all 
winter, and I have found her decidedly 
above the average American girl in ability ; 
she has good reading knowledge of English 
and, what is unusual among her country- 
women, a great deal of ambition and a very 
determined will. . . . 



CORRESPONDENCE 137 

Miss K. proved an apt pupil, and an essay 
of hers on the Elizabethan Period of Eng- 
lish History was read at the annual meeting 
in 1896. 



FROM MRS. A. G. D. (a student of English Literature and 
a newspaper correspondent). 

July 8, 1896. 
... I now take the first opportunity to 
thank you most heartily for your words of 
praise and your exceedingly kind interest in 
my good fortune. Of course you know that 
I am so puffed up over having my paper 
selected that I am like to burst ignomini- 
ously. It is a good ending to the failures 
and disappointments of so often falling 
short in my work. Thank you over and 
over again, and still again for the pleasure I 
have had in my study in the Society. My 
teachers have been so considerate and lovely 
to me. If all the members who benefit by 
your goodness. Miss Ticknor, feel as warmly 
grateful as I do, you would be repaid for 
your beautiful work. And most of them 
must do so. I am virtually in a mental 
prison in these Georgia mountains. The 
hours devoted to my S. H. work have been 
like a prisoner's dreams of the world he has 



138 STUDIES AT HOME 

left, and, in spite of my derelictions and 
oftentimes bad work, I liave enjoyed every 
bit of it. It is so nice of you to take the 
trouble to encourage me, I am sure I shall 
do better work next year for it. ... I shall 
think of you very often and warmly. There 
ought to be a new beatitude composed 
especially for the S. H. " Blessed are 
those who feed the hungry and thirsty for 
knowledge " — something like that. 

With renewed assurances of my apprecia- 
tion of your interest in my work, and for 
your lovely work for others. . . . 

FROM MISS H. M. J. {for many years both student and 
teacher). 

Germantown, September 16, 1896. 
As the time draws near for the Home 
Study work to begin again, I feel that I 
am not at all ready to give up my connec- 
tion with the Society as a student, so I am 
going to put in another plea for a course 
in German literature. ... I have so thor- 
oughly enjoyed my reading with the S. H. 
that it would be with much grief that I 
should have to sever my connection as a stu- 
dent. I know that the Society has been of 
untold advantage to me, training me into 



CORRESPONDENCE 139 

systematic habits of reading, and my histori- 
cal knowledge is entirely due to the interest 
that the first course I took aroused ; it is a 
subject I never tire of, and one that will 
prove a life-long pleasure for me to dig into. 
Of course, as I am nearly of age now, I 
should manage to travel alone, but I should 
miss the guiding hand and the monthly chats 
in regard to the work : so if it is at all prac- 
ticable, I hope that some kind lady will take 
compassion on me and help me from her 
store of knowledge. I do not want to put 
thee to any extra trouble, and yet I do want 
to try my hand at German Literature. I 
certainly will feel very grateful if thou can 
accommodate me. . . . 

This lady had been for many years an ex- 
cellent teacher in one or two departments, 
while she continued to study faithfully in 
other branches. 

The Society had become through the suc- 
cessful work of many years a public organi- 
zation, and Miss Ticknor recognized that its 
attitude toward the world was changed ; she 
consented therefore that two small cases 
showing specimens of the work and the 
methods of the Society should be placed at 



140 STUDIES AT HOME 

the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893, which 
attracted much attention, as is seen by the 
following letters : — 

FROM MRS. E. A. R. {an official). 

Chicago, October 16, 1893. 
It gives me great pleasure to attest to the 
pleasure and profit which your exhibit has 
afforded to hungry minds from foreign coun- 
tries, as well as to those from our own states. 
I believe you will hear from some of those 
who have accepted your printed reports and 
circulars ; there have not been many days 
that I have not placed a few of your pam- 
phlets at the opening hours of the day in 
your thoughtfully prepared pockets. Many 
times people have been sent to my office to 
ask if I would please give them one of the 
reports ; they have not been accepted lightly, 
but treasured. I cannot tell for certain in 
what way your exhibit here has been most 
fruitful for good, but I feel inclined to say 
in its command to others " to go and do like- 
wise." I have been touched by the rever- 
ential way in which foreigners have sought 
me, to speak of your system, averring their 
purpose to go home to institute similar work. 
Your system of " Home Study " will be mul- 



CORRESPONDENCE 141 

tiplied in many instances. The little seed 
which you planted is now a wide-spreading 
oak. . . . 

FROM MR. G. A. G. {a commissioner). 

Chicago, October 16, 1893. 

... It gives me great pleasure to say 
that great interest has been manifested in 
the work of the Society to Encourage Stud- 
ies at Home. Its circulars have been taken 
liberally by the people who have visited us, 
and I am sure that its work receives the 
high commendation which it deserves. 

It has been one of the pleasantest things 
connected with my work to think that the 
little pamphlets which describe your work, 
and the pamphlet of the Woman's Education 
Association, would go into so many communi- 
ties in our own land and to so many centres 
of influence in foreign lands. The seed 
sown must bring forth abundant harvest. 

I congratulate you upon the good which 
you and your Society have been enabled to 
do, and upon the bright prospects for future 
beneficence. 



142 STUDIES AT HOME 

III. Letters from Correspondents and 
Students about the Society. 

From a large number of letters received 
after Miss Ticknor's death, those have been 
chosen that give in the simplest form a 
description of what the writers consider the 
nature and scope of the work of the Society, 
especially those that reveal the personal 
impression made by Miss Ticknor. 

FROM MISS L. S. (a student). 

San Antonio, Texas, 
October 8, 1896. 

If Miss Ticknor is still with you, I know 

she can suggest the right books. Since I 

worked with her, I have taken four full 

courses and parts of several others in the 

State University, finishing terms where I 

could not take the whole year, beside doing 

a great deal of study at home. At present, 

beside my school work, I am a member of 

a history club, and have promised to give 

some lectures on current events ; so you 

see my work with you has not been lost. 

Intellectual life among women has greatly 

quickened here in the last eight or ten years, 



CORRESPONDENCE 143 

and I find more opportunities for work than 
time and strength, but I shall always re- 
member with pleasure the work I did with 
the " Society." It is so definite. Miss Tick- 
nor was my first correspondent. 

... It was my first serious study after 
a year of nervous prostration, and to her 
sympathy and wise direction I owe it largely 
that I had courage to regain my power of 
study. . . . 

FROM MRS. A. S. B. {a student for many years). 

Savannah, Geokgia, 

October 22, 1896. 

... I feel that I have lost my best friend. 
Miss Ticknor's kind words and wise counsel 
first came into my life when I was an un- 
formed girl struggling with disappointment, 
poverty, sorrow and trouble, and her friend- 
ship abided with me during all the changes 
and chances of twenty years, helping me 
beyond computation. Her kind offices en- 
abled me to remain with the Society, and to 
complete courses therein that would have 
been impossible otherwise. She knew much 
of, and took an interest in, my personal life, 
my work as a teacher, my father's death, my 



144 STUDIES AT HOME 

own marriage, the passing away of my mo- 
ther, and finally the birth of my son. . . . 
But particularly I owe my mental attain- 
ments and my spiritual life to her and my 
angel mother, and I would not exchange 
either for the wealth of Indies. Miss Tick- 
nor was emphatically my Alma Mater ; she 
supplied all that my natural mother (talented 
as she was) could not give ; and whatever is 
worthy in my character or daily life, what- 
ever is my success as a teacher, is largely due 
to her ; I have taught since before I grad- 
uated in 1872, and expect so to do as long 
as I live, although I have no pupils just now. 
Perhaps I do not realize the full extent of 
my indebtedness to Miss Ticknor, but words 
cannot express my obligation to her, nor my 
devotion to her and to her memory. . . . 

FROM MISS A. T. (a student). 

Bath, Maine, November 8, 1896. 

... I know how much she [Miss Tick- 
nor] was the guiding spirit of it ; how she 
put her life and energy into it ; in what a 
wonderful way she entered into the plans of 
the individual scholar. I am so glad I had 
the pleasure of meeting her once at the June 



CORRESPONDENCE 145 

reunion. In the giving up of the S. H., I 
feel as if I had lost a home, for almost con- 
tinuously for thirteen years have I studied 
with it. My obligation to the ladies who 
have so kindly given me their time and at- 
tention is very great. One thing I feel, 
that as I can never repay the individual 
teacher, I will try to hand the work on by 
aiding as much as possible those who come 
under me now in my life as a teacher 
here. 

FROM MRS. E. A. W. (a student). 

Hastings, Minnesota, 
November 24, 1896. 

. . . Miss Ticknor's death has left me 
with the feeling that I have lost a personal 
friend. 

Although I have only had one or two let- 
ters from her, I have always thought so 
gratefully of her efforts in the Society. 
Probably the benefits of S. H. have meant 
more to me than to many pupils who live 
within reach of other advantages of this 
kind. I have felt quite sure that the ex- 
ecutive committee would not feel that the 
Society had " accomplished the work for 
which it was organized," if all its members 



146 STUDIES AT HOME 

still needed it as much as I do. It is outside 
of family and friends tlie greatest pleasure 
I have ever had, and I write this sincerely. 
I had looked forward to many years in its 
membership, and this hope had become so 
much a part of my plans that I am now bit- 
terly disappointed over the plan of the ex- 
ecutive board to close the work this year. 

Are there not many others in the Society 
who live as I do, in a small town without 
lectures and public libraries ? If there are, 
could not the committee be prevailed upon 
to at least continue the lending library ? 

You cannot know how much the privilege 
of having the library books, and your letters, 
have done to make me contented with all 
the discouraging things one feels in a small 
place. 



FROM MISS M. L. B. (a student at first and later a cor- 
respondent). 

Kingston, New York, 
December 4, 1896. 

... My own experience has been that 
this Society reaches a class not reached by 
other societies. The work is apportioned to 
the time available to mothers of families, and 



CORRESPONDENCE 147 

women employed during the day, who are 
glad of an opportunity to study, but who can- 
not and ought not to be forced to " keep up " 
with a class. And there is another class, 
who prefer to study at home, without having 
the fact known outside the home. Among 
my own students have been a number of 
southern women whose education was inter- 
rupted by the civil war, and who, late in 
life, were glad of the leisure and oppor- 
tunity to study, but sensitive about having it 
known that they needed to study elementary 
branches ; in my section it was frequently 
arithmetic. And often I have found teach- 
ers who would be ashamed to own that they 
needed help from the Society. Probably 
such cases occur oftener in a section like 
mine, confined to practical branches. 

FROM MRS. L. S. R. (a correspondent). 

Cleveland, Ohio, 
December 5, 1896. 

. . . From my experience as correspond- 
ent since October, 1894, I have learned the 
need there is of the help that can be given 
those who most need help, in forgetting or 
in living above the limitations surrounding 



148 STUDIES AT HOME 

them. This need, varying in kind with each 
individual student, can best be met by per- 
sonal correspondence, which opens the way 
for a truer sympathy and wiser helpfulness 
than otherwise is possible. It may be that 
my experience of last year was, more than 
usually, with those whose need in this direc- 
tion was great ; and while the scholastic re- 
sults were not all that could be desired, the 
real educational value is not to be measured, 
neither does it lie all upon one side. 

FROM MRS. A. G. D. {a student). 

Nelson, Georgia, 
December 5, 1896. 

. . . There is no society that I know of 
which aims to maintain so high a standard, 
which has such a well-educated corps of teach- 
ers, and which establishes so friendly a rela- 
tionship between critics and pupils. This 
latter point is one of peculiar merit, as the 
poor in mind or education, quite as much as 
the poor in purse, need the friendly com- 
panionship of those who endeavor to help 
them. . . . 

For myself, I wish to tender my heartfelt 
sympathy to the committee for Miss Tick- 
nor's death. Those of us who have received 



CORRESPONDENCE 149 

her kindness and loving consideration dread 
the thought that it should not be passed on 
to others, even after she has laid the good 
work down. The Society is unique in its 
dignity and high standard. . . . 

FROM MISS E. L. B. (a correspondent and professional 
teacher). 

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
December 6, 1896. 

. . . As I am asked to note my reasons 
for this opinion, I will say that first, as a 
matter of sentiment, it is discouraging to 
see the wise, noble work of an earnest 
woman collapse for lack of cohesive strength 
as soon as her presence is withdrawn. To 
me it seems that the continuance of Miss 
Ticknor's work long after her memory shall 
be but a name, would be the most beautiful 
tribute that woman's loyal gratitude could 
pay to the unselfish, loving devotion of a 
life given so freely to others. 

For more practical reasons I should de- 
plore the discontinuance of the Society. It 
has done a much needed work in the past, 
and I cannot believe that its period of use- 
fulness is really near its close. Its present 
membership may be smaller than in past 



150 STUDIES AT HOME 

years, before opportunities for college edu- 
cation were so freely furnished, but there is, 
and always must be, a large class of women 
wbo need precisely tbe kind of help it offers. 
It is for tbe many women wbo cannot avail 
themselves of even a single college course, 
and I think no other society has yet been 
formed which fills its place. There are, and 
always will be, thousands of women eager 
for instruction who can never go to college ; 
women kept at home by ill health, or im- 
perative duties to others, or obliged to earn 
their living in places at a distance from 
centres of education. They need home 
work, and no opportunities offered by col- 
leges or university extension courses can 
reach them as we can. As a very useful 
supplement to college study I can myself, 
from my own experience, bear witness to its 
value. 

As far as I can learn, no other society of 
like aim, carrying on a system of education 
by correspondence, has succeeded in estab- 
lishing the same bond of sympathy between 
its corps of teachers and students. The 
personal element, so conspicuous in our 
work, seems to be quite a distinctive feature, 
and of inestimable value. Indeed, the work 



CORRESPONDENCE 151 

of the Society seems so full of possibilities 
for far-reaching and enduring good, that it 
would be a matter of deep regret if it should 
now fail for lack of administrative organi- 
zation, or need of an increase in its yearly 
income. It has had a beautiful mission to 
fulfill reaching many lives cut off from the 
opportunities we enjoy, and I cannot believe 
that its work is yet near its end. The world 
will be the poorer, if it ceases to be an active 
element in educating and refining the women 
of America. . . . 

A clergyman in a western city wrote to 
me some years ago that the Society to En- 
courage Studies at Home had proved the 
most efficient help he had in his missionary 
work. Would not other ministers be likely 
to see its value and encourage its growth in 
their parishes ? . . . 

FROM MISS C. E. T. (a correspondent). 

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
December 8, 1896. 

. . . There is no society which takes the 
same place. The friendly element is a most 
important one, and I believe that many girls 
and women have been as much helped by 
the sympathetic interest that they have found, 



152 STUDIES AT HOME 

and by the intangible influence that has 
been perhaps unconsciously exerted, as by 
the actual knowledge they have gained. 
One pupil writes me this week : " No one 
ever cared before what I did, so far as in- 
tellectual work goes. There is something 
really delightful in this new state of things." 
I will inclose a fragment at the end of this 
same letter. The writer is a blind woman, 
forty years old. " I wish you and I might 
work away at something for the next ten 
years. It awes and bewilders one to think 
how much there is to know about every- 
thing. There seems to be no beginning or 
ending." 

FROM MISS M. W. B. (a cmrespondent). 

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
Decemlber 10, 1896. 

... It seems to me to do a personal work 
that other societies do not do. 

In reply to one of my students, asking if 
she could obtain the lesson leaflet for next 
year, I told her that I would continue the 
work with her through the course, and she 
replies : " Thank you very much for your 
offer to help me. ... I shall appreciate it 



CORRESPONDENCE 153 

very much," etc., and adds, " I doubly ap- 
preciate the Home Study, as my deafness 
debars me from the Chautauqua Circle or 
any other literary society." I do not doubt 
that this Society reaches many who are 
reached in no other way. . . . 

FROM MISS A. B. W. (a student). 

Hastings, Minnesota, 
December 16, 1896. 

... I consider the help of this Society 
one of the greatest blessings I have ever 
had. ... I hope it may continue in memory 
of dear Miss Ticknor, whose unselfish devo- 
tion has maintained for so many years this 
splendid opportunity, that she, being dead, 
may yet speak in the homes where she has 
been loved so well. 

The Society is alone in its work. . . . No 
other society open to busy people presents 
such high standards, or demands such thor- 
ough work. Students of S. H. could not 
be provided for in the average society for 
home study. . . . The Committee cannot 
realize the good accomplished by the lend- 
ing library, in homes that are far from lit- 
erary centres and public libraries. . . . 



154 STUDIES AT HOME 

FROM MKS. G. S. H. (a former correspondent). 

Boston, January 27, 1897. 
... I think lier judgment [Miss Tick- 
nor's] was almost unfailing. When she gave 
me a young girl belonging to rich fashion- 
able people living in a city, I objected, say- 
ing I did not feel called upon to give any 
time to one to whom every opportunity was 
open, and that it did not seem fair to teach- 
ers. She gave such good reasons, that, see- 
ing her wisdom, I went on. She thought the 
cases likely to be too rare to make trouble, 
that such persons were only likely to come in 
from peculiar circumstances, and that it was 
better at least to try them ; and the most 
convincing argument reminded me, that from 
them we must look for aid in the teaching, 
if they were persistent in carrying out the 
course. . . . 

FKOM MISS S. C. (a former correspondent and profes- 
sional teacher). 

Philadelphia, January 30, 1897. 
. . . My connection with the Society 
brought me great pleasure and a keen stim- 
ulus in literary work. I look back also to 
the confidence Miss Ticknor granted me in 
the choice of pupils as very gratifying, for 



CORRESPONDENCE 155 

I was, of course, a stranger to her. The 
interchange of thought with many bright 
women, my students, the almost invariable 
response to my friendly advances, and ap- 
preciation of my endeavor to widen their 
horizon of study, gave zest to a work already 
congenial. The requirements for corre- 
spondents taught me many a time the value 
of prompt responses to business letters. . . . 

I believe, nay, I know, that the corre- 
spondents gained as much advantage in their 
way as the students did in theirs. 

We must all have had some funny expe- 
riences, some unfortunate misunderstandings 
(temporarily), but these are too personal 
ever to narrate ! Most heartily and truth- 
fully can we dwell upon the sunny, stimu- 
lating side of a work, in those early days, 
truly unique. Every one of us who was 
associated with the Society must recall its 
inspiring head, irrespective of a personal 
acquaintance with her, as a sort of good 
genius, who devised and kept going a plan 
of work so many-sided and far-reaching in 
its results. 

The mental stimulus; the broadening of 
interests ; expansion of view in life as also 
in the range of special study ; the human- 



156 STUDIES AT HOME 

izing influence of a close toucli with women 
whose surroundings and personality were 
often so dissimilar to our own ; the (volun- 
tary) compulsion requiring us to guide to 
the best of our ability each student and to 
hold her ambition at high-water mark; 
these, and much more, are comprised in 
the direct advantages every conscientious 
correspondent gained, and for which she 
realized she was indebted to the forethought 
and wise leadership of Anna Eliot Ticknor. 
For I think we all knew that as Miss Tick- 
nor gave of her best, she expected us to do 
the same. 

FROM MISS M. H. G. (a correspondent belonging to the 
Society of Friends). 

The spirit which Anna Ticknor instilled 
into the Society was that of seeking to start 
ever-widening circles of wholesome influ- 
ences. Her motto for correspondents and for 
students might have been, " Freely ye have 
received, freely give." Nothing pleased her 
better than to find that one of the students 
in a far-away home, isolated from libraries 
and schools, was passing on to those about 
her the good she received from the Society 
by gathering a class or a reading circle. 



CORRESPONDENCE 157 

Correspondents were instructed to get into 
sympathy with their students, delicately 
opening the way, without intrusiveness, for 
a student to tell her tasks, occupations and 
associations in order that advice for study 
might meet individual needs. Many last- 
ing friendships were thus formed, and op- 
portunity found for advice on other matters 
than the course of study ; as the care of 
health, social intercourse, or choice of occu- 
pation. 

One lovely young girl, eldest of a farmer's 
family, living miles away from railroad fa- 
cilities and receiving mail but once a week, 
welcomed into the life of her family what 
was to them a great broadening of interests 
and delights. She took two courses with 
different correspondents, and interested 
them so much that she was invited to visit 
them in New York and Philadelphia. She 
had not been in the cars till about that time 
nor seen any larger water craft than a row- 
boat. " Call this a ' hoat^' " she said as she 
stepped on the ferry ; "it seems like a 
house 1 " Imagine what it was to her to see 
our three largest cities, for she passed through 
Chicago, to look forth on the sea and ship- 
ping, to have opportunities of hearing intel- 



158 STUDIES AT HOME 

ligent conversation, to study the arrange- 
ments of refined Cliristian homes, prepared 
wisely to appropriate only what suited her 
circumstances at home. She afterwards 
married happily, and died years ago, but her 
mother still keeps up some intercourse with 
one of her daughter's teachers in the S. H. 

Another bright and original girl was liv- 
ing a singularly lonely life socially when 
she joined the Society as a student, because 
the head of her home was a man who had 
a keen sense of the hoUowness to be found 
in society and the church, and had with- 
drawn from both. This girl wrote de- 
lightful long letters to her correspondents, 
opening her heart to them. A visit to her 
home revealed the strange conditions that 
hampered her, showing her to be a shy sen- 
sitive girl, with bright mind, and without 
sufficient outlet for her energies. She 
turned her attention to sanitary science, and 
has been for some years past the happy effi- 
cient matron of a boarding home belonging 
to a Christian college. She has kept up 
some intercourse with members of the S. H. 
for nearly twenty years, welcoming practical 
advice and making use of it to guide her 
young sisters and others into useful lives. 



CORRESPONDENCE 159 

FROM MISS M. W. W. (a former corre^ondent, now a 
college professor). 

189Y. 
It was my good fortune to be actively con- 
nected witli tlie " Study at Home " Society 
in its earlier years, when its first broad in- 
fluences were being felt and when its num- 
bers were already large and increasing. A 
new department of astronomy was formed 
and placed in my charge. The numbers 
studying in this direction were never large, 
but there were many who gratefully availed 
themselves of this opportunity, and who 
found profit and pleasure in the work. Dur- 
ing my connection with the Society, I was 
always most impressed with the helpfulness 
of the sympathy which existed between stu- 
dent and correspondent. It may be that 
the student secured comparatively little scien- 
tific training by her reading, but she gained 
an intellectual stimulus, which was worth 
quite as much. Not infrequently in my 
department there were women, shut away 
from books and libraries, perhaps plodding 
teachers in country schools, perhaps wives of 
farmers in remote villages, whose horizons 
were broadened and whose intellectual in- 
terests were effectually stirred by the daily 



160 STUDIES AT HOME 

reading and the monthly correspondence. 
I believe the beneficent influence of the So- 
ciety founded by Miss Ticknor can never be 
fully measured, because it has ramified in so 
many silent and unnoted ways. It has con- 
tributed even more than its friends realize 
toward the larger intellectual life of the wo- 
men of to-day. 

FROM MRS. M. S. P. (a student, whose daughter also 
Joined the Society as soon as she was old enough). 

KuGBT, Tennessee, 
February 2, 1897. 

... I am glad you are thinking of a me- 
morial of Miss Ticknor and the Society. I 
can never forget the interest I felt in mak- 
ing my first acquaintance with the " S. H." 
through an article in the New York " Tri- 
bune " in 1876. It was a revelation to me, 
and I could not rest until I knew the state- 
ments made were indeed a reality. I be- 
came a member that year, and found that 
not the half had been told. 

Of the patient and kindly methods of its 
correspondents in aiding, encouraging and 
interesting its students, I learned by expe- 
rience through the following years. 

The freedom of choice both as to subject 
and length of time devoted to it, as also 



CORRESPONDENCE 161 

freedom in choice of text-books, the study 
of subjects, or things rather than books, was 
the main idea that attracted me. To search 
for the truth, to read for a purpose became 
habitual to all genuine students of the So- 
ciety. But aside from the positive intellec- 
tual benefits, who can estimate the charming 
influence, to be felt rather than described, 
exerted by the monthly correspondence? 
And when hard places were made easy, by a 
few words of explanation or a carefully 
drawn illustration ; when a box of specimens, 
or portfolio of drawings came by the ever 
welcome mail, what words could express the 
delight, or the grateful feelings of the isolated 
housewife ? 

For myself there was but one expression 
in those days : " The Society is a rose with- 
out a thorn." It was not yet the day of 
woman's clubs. How much the " S. H." has 
aided in developing this latter-day manifes- 
tation will never perhaps be known ; but I 
feel well assured that many leading members 
of these clubs received their earlier training 
in the " S. H." . . . 

Asking you about books has brought to 
mind that I intended mentioning, when 
speaking of the Society, another strong 



162 STUDIES AT HOME 

point, which was the fact that one could 
always feel that the best books, the best 
authors on any subject were recommended 
by, and could be obtained through, the 
S. H. . . . 

FROM MKS. C. W. S. (a student). 

Denver, Colokado, 

February 8, 1897. 

... I had the pleasure of knowing Miss 
Ticknor personally. I joined the Society in 
the first year of its existence, and for several 
months Miss Ticknor was my correspondent 
in English literature. I was eighteen at 
the time, having just left school ; my father, 
an officer of the army, was greatly interested 
in Miss Ticknor's project and was helpful to 
me, for I was rather a giddy girl in those days. 
I feel I owe my love for reading and study 
entirely to the S. H. I have written for the 
newspapers, etc., quite successfully of late 
years. Miss Ticknor turned me over to Miss 
P. . . whom I found helpful, though I have 
no doubt I was trying to her, not being me- 
thodical as she wished me to be. I studied 
history with Miss P. and enjoyed her hos- 
pitality in her home. Later, I studied "Ham- 



CORRESPONDENCE 163 

let," with Miss M. G. and enjoyed her friend- 
ship ; I visited her at her brother's house in 
Baltimore. For four or ^yq years I had the 
privilege of the S. H., and it has been, and 
is, of more value to me than my clumsy words 
convey. My father's death, which was very 
sudden, and later, my marriage, caused me 
to sever my connection with this valuable 
Society, but a large number of my friends 
joined it and are grateful to have done so. 

FROM Miss V. F. P. (a student). 

Gekmantown, Pennsylvania, 

February 11, 1897. 

... In the years in which I was an S. H. 
student (especially those with Mrs. D.) the 
benefit that I received is scarcely to be esti- 
mated when viewed in the light of my sub- 
sequent work. It gave me just the training 
I needed as Foreign Missionary Secretary, 
and in my other Missionary work, as leader 
of bands studying the manners, customs, etc., 
of the various countries ; and in not a little 
writing for publication. 

It taught me the rapid grasping of the 
salient features, condensation, power of vivid 
description and historical connection. ... 



164 STUDIES AT HOME 

FKOM MKS. M. A. H. {a student). 

Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, 
February 12, 1897. 

... I have been looking over letters re- 
ceived from Miss Ticknor. They bring tears 
to my eyes, but there are none that I could 
send for your reading. But what a grace 
lives in every line she writes. If she merely 
speaks of the severe storms we are having in 
the West, it is like a benediction ; and her 
words of sympathy and encouragement seem 
to come from a sphere higher than this 
earthly one. I dislike to think of the com- 
parative desert my life would have been but 
for Miss Ticknor's gracious and benignant 
work. . . . 

FROM MKS. E. B. V. K. (a student and later a corre- 
spondent). 

Denver, Colorado, 

February, 1897. 

... I find but one letter has been pre- 
served, and that is hardly of a nature which 
would be of general interest. It speaks to 
me, however, very forcibly of her personal 
interest in each member and enthusiasm for 
the work. . . . 

The Home Study has really been a great 



CORRESPONDENCE 165 

factor in my own mental development, and 
it certainly was the constructive force in tlie 
organization of tlie Friday Morning Club of 
Denver, as well as its main source of strength 
in four years of its work. 

At the last meeting a resolution was passed 
that I should express to you the sense of 
obligation felt by the club for the work of 
Miss Ticknor, and the great appreciation of 
the value of the Home Study Society. As 
a matter of interest to you personally, I will 
send you a list of Colorado clubs, devoted 
to study of various kinds, that you may see 
how, even in this distant State, the idea for 
which you have worked so long has taken 
root and spread. 

FROM MISS M. M. D. (a student at intervals for many 
years). 

Chicago, February 15, 1897. 
. . . My membership with the Society 
for Home Improvement began in 1879, and 
at irregular intervals, all these succeeding 
years, I have returned again and again for 
study, as my health would permit. 

The Society has been inexpressibly help- 
ful to me in two ways. Though a college 
graduate, I had not learned concentration 



166 STUDIES AT HOME 

of tliouglit until I was obliged to write 
memory notes for S. H. And, through the 
patient questions, the illuminations and in- 
spirations of my accomplished instructors, 
there was born in me a " sixth sense," a 
love for Shakespeare, which will be a plea- 
sure and comfort to me through life. ... I 
am the proud winner of two Shakespeare 
prizes; volumes of the Furness Variorum 
edition of Shakespeare. 

I think that Miss Ticknor's death and 
the dissolution of the Society is a far greater 
loss than we individually realize, for it must 
have been to hundreds as great a help and 
comfort as it was to me. 

A keen sense of loneliness steals over me, 
for I know that this source of improvement 
and culture can never, never again be sup- 
plied. 

FROM MISS M. G. Y. (a student). 

New York, 
February 19, 1897. 

... As far as my own connection with 
the Society is concerned, it is difficult for 
me to express how much I owe to it. Al- 
though I was educated at one of the best 
schools in New York, I have always felt that 



CORRESPONDENCE 167 

I gained more during the few years that I 
studied with the Society, than during my 
whole school life. I regret deeply that its 
existence is to be brought to a close, for I 
had hoped some time in the future to have 
leisure to enter it again as a pupil. And 
although there may be other societies, there 
are certainly none that I know of, laid down 
in the same lines, as comprehensive and as 
thorough in their teaching. . . . 

FROM MRS. A. W. K. (a student). 

Boston, February 22, 1897. 

. . , What stands out most vividly and 
very pleasantly in my memory is a delightful 
luncheon given at the Ticknor mansion, at 
which, I should say, not fewer than twenty- 
five members of the Society were present. 
Some of these had come from long distances 
in order to be there. 

Miss Ticknor was, as everybody knows, a 
host in herself, and never more charming 
than in that character. The presence of 
Madam Ticknor, and the environment of 
which she seemed a natural part, added 
greatly to the interest of the day. I feel 
confident that the organization must have 
been, indeed, encouraging to those living far 



168 STUDIES AT HOME 

from centres of intelligence and remote 
from libraries. . . . 

FKOM MRS. R. J. {a Jormer student). 

Chateauguay Basin, Canada, 
February, 1897. 

The " Study at Home " came to me when, 
with a large family of growing boys and 
girls, I was isolated from any efficient 
school, and it filled my thoughts and helped 
me in daily teaching my home pupils. Geo- 
logy and botany were our principal studies, 
and I can say truly they were the pleasant- 
est hours of my life, when, encouraged by 
letters and specimens from the far-distant 
teachers, I felt in touch with the classes of 
these fascinating sciences. 

Besides this, I formed for one of my 
teachers a lifelong friendship, and my first 
visit to Boston was as her guest. 

During that time I called, by appointment, 
on Miss Ticknor. She was very friendly, 
indeed, talked of the interest she felt in my 
case, and told me many things in connection 
with the Society. Then we spoke of the 
Boston men of letters then living, and I was 
more impressed by her simple friendliness 



CORRESPONDENCE 169 

than anything else. She left the room to 
order some refreshment, and as she returned 
I walked to one of the windows overlooking 
the Common. She came to my side and, 
divining in some way my thoughts, said, 
smiling, "Are you looking for the long 
path ? " and pointed out to me the different 
winding paths in the then secluded and un- 
touched walks. 

FROM MISS C, 0. (a student, and later teacher of a large 
private school in Tennessee). 

Chicago, February 27, 1897. 
... It gives me great joy to assure you 
that Miss Ticknor's influence was one of the 
best inspirations my life has ever known, 
and whatever may come in the future, I 
shall think of her as a light that failed not 
in the early years of trial and struggle. 
Deeply grateful for all she did and would 
have done to give me strength and cour- 
age for a great undertaking, I am glad be- 
yond expression that she lived to see an 
abundant harvest from the wise and careful 
sowing, and that the little seed of " Encour- 
agement " blooms to-day in so many beauti- 
ful homes. . . . 



170 STUDIES AT HOME 

FROM MRS. H. A. R. (a student). 

Utica, New York, 
February 27, 1897. 

The death of Miss Ticknor has brought to 
me the sense of the loss of a personal friend. 
Although I never received a letter from her, 
I always felt the force of her kindly sym- 
pathy and generous friendship in the work 
of S. H. The few lines of acknowledgment 
I have received from her, when sending my 
fee to her, have always warmed my heart. 

A long-felt want was filled when I came 
into intercourse with the Society, and I can 
never be too grateful to the generous-hearted 
woman, who projected and kept alive such 
an organization, attracting students from all 
parts of our land. This opportunity for 
study has awakened such an interest in my 
mind, that it will extend to other generations 
than my own. It has been beneficial to me 
in assisting my own children, and many 
other young friends with whom I have come 
in contact. Such a life as Miss Ticknor's 
knows no limit to its influence. . . . 



CORRESPONDENCE 171 

FROM MBS. C. R. P. (a student and later a corre- 
spondent). 

Leesburg, Virginia, 
March 11, 1897. 

I am grieved to hear the S. H, is drawing 
to a close, though I can see the fitness of it, 
when the Founder and Inspirer has passed 
away. It has, no doubt, done its greatest 
good ; what that has been, directly and in- 
directly, no human power can estimate. 
None can speak more feelingly than I of its 
beneficent, far-reaching results, of the un- 
ceasing kindness and goodness of Miss Tick- 
nor and the ladies associated with her. 

I first saw a notice of S. H. in 1875, in the 
New York " Churchman," and seized upon it 
eagerly for my daughter, Mrs. C, hoping to 
lessen the monotony of a long illness by the 
enforced attention to interesting subjects 
skillfully arranged. For two years Miss 
Ticknor herself was her delightful corre- 
spondent in English literature (unfortu- 
nately, her letters were lately destroyed); 
later Miss Ticknor suggested botany as an 
interesting pursuit, and gave her Miss C. as 
instructor. Seeds were germinated in the 
sick room, sunshine of both kinds were in- 
troduced to brighten its weariness, and the 



172 STUDIES AT HOME 

seedlings were watched with eager pleasure 
by the invalid and her little son. Letters 
came constantly from Miss C, with plants 
and seeds, and descriptions of a fascinating 
tour in California. 

Other ladies also sent my daughter valu- 
able books and prints from their private 
collections, as time went on, and other 
branches were taken up. I sincerely believe 
it was most helpful in restoring her to some 
measure of health. The first visit to the an- 
nual meeting in 1880, bringing us face to 
face with our long-known, unseen friends, 
was a delight unspeakable to us. Miss 
Ticknor's (and indeed others') kindness and 
hospitality were unbounded. 

Mrs. C. was many years among the cor- 
respondents. One of her experiences illus- 
trates the value of the Society remarkably. 
A poor, illiterate woman, working hard all 
day in her husband's lumber camp in Maine, 
was lifted out of the " slough " by the daily 
efforts to get a little time for S. H. She 
was led through one branch after another 
(even the spelling corrected) until she ob- 
tained the proud distinction of having her 
essay on Shakespeare one of those chosen 
to be read at the June meeting. 



CORRESPONDENCE 173 

Before we had met Miss Ticknor, I wrote 
asking to be taken as a student in the phy- 
sical geography course, that I might be able 
to teach my little grandson out of what 
Kingsley called " God's great green book," 
as that branch had not been thoroughly 
taught me. Miss Ticknor inquired in her in- 
cisive manner, " Are you a teacher, and what 
is your age ? " With sinking heart I replied 
I was a grandmother, and nearing half a 
century. Still more incisively came the re- 
ply, " Come on, I applaud your energy." 
She gave me a young girl of eighteen for 
my guardian and guide. We went on joy- 
ously, until the dear little lad was called to 
higher teaching. Though only ^yq years 
old, he had begun to have ideas of " water- 
sheds," "erosion," etc., in a simple way, 
charming to us all. I, too, was honored in 
being asked to join the correspondents ; and 
continued learning from many delightful la- 
dies of the staff, while helping others in a 
small way. S. H. has been a joy and de- 
light to Mrs. C. and myself, and through 
us to many others. We shall ever feel the 
warmest gratitude to Miss Ticknor and the 
ladies of S. H. for their unflagging zeal, 
kindness, and courtesy in our behalf, for the 



174 STUDIES AT HOME 

inspiration of the June meetings, and the 
opportunity afforded us of meeting the New 
England choicest men as well as women. 

FROM MISS M. F. S. (a student). 

Philadelphia, March 29, 1897. 
... I have studied with the Society nine 
terms in all ; the first one in the fall of 1879 
just after I graduated, a girl of nineteen, and 
the last one in the winter of '94-'95, so can 
speak out of an extended experience. It is 
difficult for me to say all I would as to the 
value of this work lest it sound extravagant, 
yet I feel I can hardly overestimate it. The 
plan of giving a correspondent to each pupil, 
who could intelligently direct and criticise 
and who expected a definite amount of work 
done within a certain time, could not fail to 
benefit an ambitious girl who did not mean 
to get rusty after school days were done, but 
who might not have been able to keep up to 
her resolves. The individual correspondence 
to my mind gives the Society a great advan- 
tage over any other system of Home Study, 
for there is a stimulus in personality that 
can never be obtained from books. I was 
specially fortunate in the first teacher who 
was assigned to me. 



CORRESPONDENCE 175 

I took a five years' course in English lit- 
erature witli her, studying from the time of 
Chaucer to Tennyson, and am sure that my 
object was more than attained. I wished to 
fit myself to teach literature in private 
schools, and I am sure she would agree with 
me that the work I did with her made me 
competent to do so had health permitted. I 
thought at first that it would be a great dis- 
advantage to study by correspondence in- 
stead of recitation, but soon found it a great 
gain, as it compelled clearness on paper as 
well as in speech, and was conducive to 
habits of condensation. I have written a 
little for the press and have also taught 
large classes in Sunday-school, and had nor- 
mal classes to train teachers for religious 
work, and in all these ways have seen the 
good results of having been taught to seize 
on salient points, to remember carefully, and 
to express myself on paper with at least 
some degree of clearness to the average 
mind. Of all the many teachers I had in 
my girlhood, I shall always remember Miss 
W. as demanding more of me than any of 
the others, and she got it too. She was very 
exacting and unsparing in her criticism, but 
it spurred me on to do work that must sat- 



176 STUDIES AT HOME 

isfy even her, while her own faithfulness 
and promptness kept me up to my work. I 
have of course long ago acknowledged to 
her my indebtedness, but shall be very 
glad to have her see this letter. The two 
years' course in English history I enjoyed ex- 
ceedingly. It was the general review course ; 
and I think the plan adopted of using " Free- 
man's Outlines " and then reading up special 
topics from outside histories was most 
admirable, but the condition of health I was 
in at that time, and my duties, made it im- 
possible for me to do as well as I otherwise 
could, I am sure. With considerable trepi- 
dation I took up botany in the fall of '88, 
for I really did not see from the little know- 
ledge I had of it how it could be taught by 
correspondence. Again I was very fortu- 
nate in my teacher, Miss C. of Connecticut. 
I saw at once she was young and enthusi- 
astic, and I not only learned much more than 
I did at school, so that I could observe for 
myself, and much to my delight analyze and 
classify the flowers when spring came, but 
I had a most delightful acquaintance on 
paper. She very kindly consented to cor- 
respond with me through the summer, but 
circumstances made it impossible for me to 



CORRESPONDENCE 111 

keep on after that. Then when I wished to 
take it up again she was not available. 

My last term, also botany, in '94, was not 
so successful. I was not in physical condi- 
tion to do much work. . . . Still I learned 
much that interested me, and the study 
helped me to keep my mind off myself dur- 
ing days of nervous illness. Altogether, as 
I have said before, I cannot easily overesti- 
mate what the Society has done for me, and 
am sure a great wave of gratitude will roll 
on to Boston when it becomes known to 
thousands all over the country that an 
opportunity is given to express it as the 
work now draws to its close. . . . 



VII. 

CONCLUSION. 

It may seem strange that a society 
which was still doing so much good should 
come to an end with the death of its founder ; 
but it had appeared to some of the most ac- 
tive workers for several years before Miss 
Ticknor's death that a thorough change of 
methods was necessary to meet the changed 
conditions of the times. University Ex- 
tension had brought college privileges to 
many homes, and many correspondence soci- 
eties had come into the field during the last 
twenty-five years. None offered precisely 
the same advantages as Miss Ticknor's So- 
ciety, but they were perhaps more generally 
attractive. The number of highly educated 
women from whom gratuitous service could 
be expected was by no means so great as 
formerly, for the demands on their time 
have constantly increased with the growth 
of charitable and other organizations de- 



CONCLUSION 179 

pending on volunteer help. The possibility 
of being compelled to lower the standard 
of work was feared, and it was thought far 
better to lay the work down before this pos- 
sibility should become an actuality. At the 
same time the many requests from women's 
clubs for books and directions for study, 
without constant oversight, proved that 
there was a field open for work similar to 
that done hitherto, and a use for the valu- 
able material belonging to the Society. The 
circulating library had been one of the most 
important features of the old organization. 
Without it the students could have accom- 
plished but little, as they could not often 
afford to buy books, and there were but few 
libraries outside the large cities containing 
the books needed in their studies. 

It was proposed that this library should 
form a nucleus for a larger collection ; and 
with this end in view the Anna Ticknor 
Library Association was organized in May, 
1897, to circulate books, photographs, lists 
for study and other educational helps among 
students and clubs, and thus continue the 
work of the Society in a broader way than 
had been possible with the necessarily 
somewhat stringent rules of a body which 



180 STUDIES AT HOME 

was primarily instructive.^ This new organ- 
ization is made up largely of Miss Ticknor's 
friends and fellow workers, and it is hoped 
that it may long carry on the spirit as well 
as the name of the founder of the Society 
to Encourage Studies at Home. 

1 Appendix C. 



APPENDIX A. 

LIST OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SERVED TWO 
YEARS OR MORE. 



Depart- 
ment 

Aekerly, Miss Jennie 2 

Adams, Mrs. Theodore P. 2 
Albertson, Mrs. Mary A. . 6 

Alden, Miss A. Fanny 1 

Aldrieh, Mrs. A. C 6 

AJdricli, Miss Sybil B 2 

Alexander, Miss Con- 
stance 6 

Alger, Miss Abby L 5 

Allen, Miss Annie E 2 

Head of Section IV. 
1892-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1887-1897. 

Allen, Miss Ethel B 6 

AUen, Mrs. WiUiamY.... 6 

Allyn, Miss Alice 2 

Ames, Mrs. James B 1 

Head of Section I. 
1891-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1875^1879, 1886-1897. 
Amory, Miss Susan C. 3 & 1 
Librarian 1893-1897. 

Anderson, Miss R, R 5 

Andrew, Miss Elizabeth . . 5 
Andrews, Miss Abby B.. 1 
Head of Section II. 
1884-1887; Correspond- 
ent 1878-1897. 
Apple ton, Miss Frances E. 1 
Librarian 1874^1875 ; 
Correspondent 1874- 
1876. 

Arms, Miss Jennie M 2 

Ashhurst, Miss Emily. ... 5 

Atherton, Miss D. P 1 

Austin, Miss Catherine. . . 5 



Depart- 
ment 

Bachelder, Mrs. A. E 1 

Bacon, Miss M. Louise ... 3 

Bailey, Mrs. M. K , 6 

Baird, Miss EUie S 6 

Balch, Miss Agnes G 6 

Head of Department 
1885-1891 ; Head of Sec- 
tions 1883-1896 ; Corre- 
spondent 1877-1896. 
Balch, Miss Catherine H. 6 

Baldwin, Mrs. M 6 

Ball, Miss Helen A 6 

Ballard, Mrs. S. H 2 

Barker, Mrs. E. B 2 

Barnes, Miss Alice 3 

Barnes, Mrs. Henry J 5 

Bartlett, Miss Lucia 6 

Barus, Mrs. Carl 1 

Bayley, Miss Helen L. . . . 6 
Beach, Miss Helen, Libra- 
rian in New York. 

Beale, Mrs 6 

Beaver, Miss Anna W. . . 1 

Bell, Miss Frances L 3 

Bellamy, Mrs. Frederick. 6 
Bellows, Miss Anna L. . . . 1 

Bemis, Mrs. C. V 6 

Head of Section VI. 
1880-1884; Correspond- 
ent 1880-1888. 

Benson, Miss Mary 3 

Bernard, Miss Mary L 2 

Head of Section III. 
1881-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1879-1897. 
Bidwell, Mrs. Annie K. . . 6 



182 



APPENDIX A 



Bigelow, Miss May D 1 

Bliss, Miss Mary E 2 

Head of Section I. 
1895-1896; Correspond- 
ent 1892-1896. 

Bloodgood, Miss 5 

Boardman, Mrs. W. D. . . 2 

Bolles, Mrs. Frank 2 

Head of Section I. 
1881-1887; Correspond- 
ent 1884-1888. 
Bond, Miss Elizabeth L. . 2 
Bowen, Miss Helen E. 1&6 
Bowser, Mrs. John W. 1 & 6 

Boyden, Mrs. A. G 1 

Bradford, Miss Mattie B . 6 

Bradley, Mrs. C. B 6 

Bradley, Miss H, L 5 

Bradley, Miss Mary 6 

Brewster, Miss Anna R. . 6 

Briggs, Miss Mary B 6 

Brigham, Miss Emma E. . 6 

Britton, Mrs. N. L 2 

Brooks, Miss Mary W. - . . 6 
Brown, Miss Bertha M. . . 2 
Brown, Miss Harriet L. . . 5 

Brush, Mrs. James H 6 

Buchman, Miss Bella 3 

Buck, Miss Alice 6 

Head of Sections I. and 
II. 1884-1897 ; Corre- 
spondent 1877-1897. 

Buck, Miss Eleanor 6 

Buck, Mrs. Walter. ...... 6 

Buckingham, Miss Eliza- 
beth D 1 

Buckingham, Miss E. M. . 6 
Buckler, Mrs. William 1 & 6 

Buell, Miss Lucy B 1 

Burns, Mrs. Isidore 6 

Bursley, Miss Caroline W. 6 

Bussier, Miss Kate 5 

Butcher, Miss Ida J 2 

Butler, Miss Isabel 6 

Butler, Miss Louise . . 2 & 6 

Buzby, Miss Ida R 3 

Byerly, Miss Martha G. . . 6 

Cabot, Mrs. Samuel 6 



Cadbury, Miss Sarah 6 

Caldwell, Miss Louise T. . 3 

Campbell, Mrs. S.N 6 

CardwiU, Miss Mary E. 

3&6 

Carter, Miss Mary E 2 

Case, Miss Louise W 3 

Case, Miss Marian R 6 

Head of Section VII. 
1891-1895; Correspond- 
ent 1888-1895. 
Catherwood, Mrs. H. W. . 6 
Chamberlain, Miss Mabel. 6 
Chandler, Mrs. Frank W, 6 
Charming, Miss Eva. ..... 4 

Chase, Mrs. Alice C 6 

Chase, Miss Caroline 3 

Chase, Miss Edith L 6 

Chase, Miss Sarah J 1 

Chase, Miss Virginia M. . . 1 

Cheney, Miss Alice B 6 

Cheney, Miss Margaret S. 2 

Cheney, Miss Mary 2 

Chester, Miss Grace D. . . . 2 
ChUd, Miss Helen M. C. . . 6 
Christian, Mrs. Margaret 

P 1&6 

Clapp, Mrs 3 

Clapp, Miss Alice V 6 

Clarke, Miss Cora H 2 

Head of Department 
1875-1876; Correspond- 
ent 1875-1897. 
Clarke, Miss Rebecca H. . 6 
Cleghorn, Miss Sarah ... 6 
Cleveland, Miss Eliza C. . 3 
Head of Department 
1873-1878. 

Coffin, Miss Mary F 6 

CoUier, Mrs. Robert 6 

Librarian, California. 

Comyns, Miss Mary B 1 

Conger, Miss Katharine . . 6 
Converse, Mrs. Charles H. 3 
Head of Section V. 
1895-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1892-1897. 

Cook, Mrs. A. S 6 

Coolidge, Miss Isa 6 



APPENDIX A 



183 



Head of Sections IV. 
and V. 1893-1894 ; Cor- 
respondent 1888-1891, 
1893-1894. 

Coombs, Miss E. H 1 

Cooper, Mrs. C. E 1 

Cooper, Mrs. Morris 6 

Coursen, Miss C. H 1 

Coursen, Miss Frances B. . 6 

Cox, Miss Isabel 6 

Cramer, Miss May 3 

Crocker, Miss G. R. ..... • 2 

Crocker, Miss Lucretia... 2 
Head of Department 
1873-1875. 

Crosby, Miss C. C 3 

Crosby, Mrs. W. 2 

Crowninshield, MissEmily, 

Librarian 1875-1876. 
Cruger, Miss Cornelia. ... 3 
Cummings, Mrs. Edward 

C 6 

Ctunmings, Mrs. John. ... 6 
Cunningham, Mrs. Caleb 

L 6 

Cunningham, Miss Hester 3 

Curtis, Miss A. W 4 

Curtis, Mrs. Benjamin 1 

Curtis, Miss Elizabeth B. 1 
Curtis, Miss Frances G. . . 6 

Curtiss, Mrs. F. M 1 

Cushing, Miss Florence M. 2 
Cushing, Miss Frances W. 6 
Cushing, Miss M. Louisa. 1 
Cutler, Mrs. Elbridge G. . . 6 

Dale, Mrs. Eben 6 

Head of Sections IV. 
and V. 1896-1897 ; Cor- 
respondent 1878-1897. 
Dalton, Mrs. Charles H. . . 1 

Dame, Miss E. May 6 

Dana, Miss Henrietta 5 

Darling, Miss Mary G.. . . 6 
D' Autremont, Miss Mary . 3 
Daveis, Miss Anna E. 1 & 6 

Davis, Miss Lucy 6 

Davis, Miss M. Therese. . 1 
Day, Miss Sarah L 2 



Decombes, Mme. E 5 

De Forest, Miss Julia B. . .3 
Head of Department 
1878-1885; Correspond- 
ent 1877-1885. 
Delafield, Miss Julia L. . . 1 

Delano, Miss Julia 3 

Denny, Mrs. W. S 6 

Dexter, Miss Elsie, Libra- 
rian 1888-1893. 
Dexter, Mrs. Frederick. . 1 
Dinsmoor, Miss Mary B. . . 6 

Dix, Miss Florence 1 

Headof Section I. 1884- 

1891 ; Correspondent 

1882-1891. 

Dodd, Miss Margaret E. . . 2 

Dodge, Mrs. Edward S. . . 6 

Dodge, Miss Ella 1 

Dorsey, Miss Adelaide V. 6 
Downes, Miss Adele R.. .. 3 
Dutton, Mrs. George P. . . 3 
Dwight, Miss Marion McG. 1 

Eaton, Mrs. E. E 1 

Eaton, Miss M. M 6 

Edge, Miss EKzabeth D. 

2 & 6 

Edwards, Miss A. L 5 

EUis, Miss H. H 5 

Head of Department 

1878-1880. 

Emerton, Mrs. E. E 4 

Emery, Mrs. L. A 3 

Esten, Mrs. R. A 2 

Farley, Miss Christine 2 

Farrar, Mrs. O. W 5 

Ferris, Miss Eleanor 1 

Ferry, Miss Mary B 1 

Fisher, Miss Virginia 6 

Fitz, Miss AbbyM 6 

Fogg, Miss Clara N 6 

Foley, Miss Mary J 2 

Folsom, Miss Ellen M 1 

Foote, Miss Mary B 1 

Head of Department 
1888-1889 ; Head of Sec- 
tions 1887-1897. 



184 



APPENDIX A 



Forbes, Mrs. H. C 6 

Ford, Miss E. G 6 

Foster, Miss E. L 5 

Foster, Miss Florence 6 

Foster, Miss Mary H 6 

Foster, Miss May K 5 

Freeman, Miss Harriet E. 2 

Frothingham, Miss Ellen. 4 
Frothingliani, Miss Lil- 

Ue 3 

Garrett, Miss Martha H. . . 2 
Head of Section H. 
1879-1890; Correspond- 
ent 1877-1895. 

Gaston, Miss Mary E 1 

Gere, Mrs. Katharine G.. . 3 
Gibson, Mrs. Beniamin A. 6 

Gilkey, Miss M. A 6 

Gilman, Miss Alice 1 

Gilman, Miss Emma C. . . . 1 
Gilman, Miss Maria P. . . . 6 
Gleason, Miss Emma W. . 1 
Godwin, Miss Minna, Li- 
brarian, New York. 

Goff, Mrs. Frances S 1 

Goodwin, Miss J. H 6 

Goodwin, Miss Mary E.. . 3 
Gozzaldi, Mme. Silvio. ... 3 
Greene, Miss Margaret. . . 3 

Greene, Miss Mary A 3 

Gribben, Miss Ida . . .^ 6 

Guild, Miss Marguerite. . . 5 

Hacker, Miss Sarah E. . . . 3 
Hagen, Mrs. H. A 4 

Head of Department 

1874-1894. 

Hale, Mrs. George S 6 

HaU, MissE. P 5 

Hamlin, Miss Grace H . . . . 6 

Hamlin, Miss S.W 3 

Hanks, Miss Alice 6 

Hardy, Miss Harriet A. . . 6 
Harker, Miss Josephine, 

Librarian, California. 
Harrington, Miss Nancy B. 1 
Harris, Miss Elizabeth. ... 1 
Harris, Miss Frances K. . . 3 



Harrison, Miss Cora 2 

Hart, Miss Elizabeth 6 

Hartshorn, Miss Cornelia . 4 
Hartshorne, Miss Anna C. 3 

Haven, Miss Ellen B 2 

Head of Section II. 
1890-1893; Correspond- 
ent 1883-1893. 
Haven, Miss Katherine M. 6 
Hayes, Miss Alice, 6 & 2 & 1 
Head of Section VII. 
1895-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1881-1897. 

Hayes, Miss Frances 1 

Haynes, Miss Julia M 1 

Heath, Miss Eadith de C. . 3 
Hepburn, Miss E. M. . 1 & 6 
Herford, Miss Helen B. . . 6 

Heywood, Miss S. H 6 

Higginson, Mrs. James J. . 6 

Hill, Miss Louise M 2 

Hirshfield, Miss Elizabeth 6 
Hitchcock, Miss Fanny E. 2 

Hobson, Mj?s. Joseph 5 

Hodge, Miss Mary R 1 

Holden, Miss Edith 3 

Holmes, Mrs. Edward J. • 6 

Holmes, Miss M. E 2 

Hood, Mrs. S. R 6 

Hooker, Mrs. John 6 

Hooper, Mrs. I. H 5 

Hooper, Miss Maggie 2 

Horsf ord. Miss Kate 6 

Horsford, Miss Lilian. ... 1 
Howard, Mrs. Albert A. . . 4 

Howe, Mrs. A. R 6 

Howe, Miss Clara 1 

Howe, Mrs. James H 1 

Hubbard, Mrs. Henry .... 1 
Hunnewell, Mrs. James F. 1 

Hunt, Miss Julia B 1 

Himtington, Miss Cornelia 5 
Huntington, Miss Mary C. 1 
Huntington, Miss M. D. . . 5 
Hutcheson, Miss Mary. ... 5 
Hutchins, Miss Emma .... 3 
Head of Section HI- 
1896-1897. 
Hyde, Miss Annie L 6 



APPENDIX A 



185 



IngKs, Miss Katherine M. 3 

James, Miss Alice 1 

Jeffries, Mrs. John A. 1 & 3 
Jennings, Miss Alice C. 2 & 6 

Johnson, Miss L. C 3 

Jones, Miss Amelia H. . . . 6 
Jones, Miss AdeKne P. . . . 6 
Jones, Miss Hannah M. 1 & 6 
Joslin, Miss Ada L 6 

Keeler, Miss Lucy EUiot 
1&3 
Head of Section II. 
1890-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1889-1897. 

Kelley, Mrs. J. T 2 

Kelley, Miss Mary H 6 

Kemhle, Miss Meta 3 

Kenney, Miss C. Belle ... 2 

Kilham, Miss E. B 6 

Kimball, Miss Gertrude S. 1 
Kimball, Mrs. James P. . . 6 

King, Miss Annie F 1 

King, Miss Elizabeth T. 

3&6 
King, Miss Margaret Scott 6 
Knowles, Miss M. A 6 

Ladd, Miss Christine H. . 2 
Leavitt, Miss Henrietta 

S _ 6 

Leland, Miss Cora J 6 

Lendrum, Miss Agnes W. 2 

Linn, Miss Mary H 1 

Lippincott, Mrs. Alice S. . 6 

Lodge, Miss Kate L 5 

Longfellow, Miss Alice M. 
1&6 
Head of Section V. 
1888-1890; Correspond- 
ent 1878-1890. 
Lord, Mrs. Robert W. . . 1 
Loring, Miss Katharine P. 1 
Head of Department 
1873-1884 ; 1892-1897 ; 
Head of Section V. 
1887-1888, 1890-1897; 
Head of Psychology 



1895-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1873-1897. 

Loring, Miss Miriam P. . . 1 

Loring, Miss Serafina.. ... 6 

Lothrop, Miss Mary B.. .. 6 

Lovering, Miss Eva 1 

Low, Mrs. Seth 4 

Lowell, Miss Katharine . . 1 

Lowell, Miss M. A 1 

Lummis, Miss Lulie E 6 

Maggi, Mme. A 5 

Marcon, Mrs. Jules 5 

Markoe, Mrs. John 1 

Marshall, Mrs. H. R 3 

Mason, Miss Ellen F.. . . . . 5 

Head of Department 
1873-1878. 
Mason, Miss Gertrude H. . 5 
Mason, Miss Ida, Libra- 
rian 1881-1887. 

Mason, Miss Mary A 1 

May, Miss Cora A 6 

McCollin, Miss M 1 

McCurdy, Miss Augusta 

G 1 

McGregory, Mrs. M. A. . . . 1 
McHenry, Mrs. Annie D. . 3 

Mead, Mrs. E. S 3 

Mead, Miss M. G 2 

Merker, Miss M 1 

Merriam, Miss Bessie 6 

Merritt, Mrs. Edward 6 

Metcalf , Mrs. F. M 5 

Millet, Mrs. J. B 2 

Mills, Miss Mary B 6 

Minns, Miss Susan 2 

Head of Section I. 
1879-1881 ; Correspond- 
ent 1876-1881 ; 1883- 
1897. 

Minot, Miss Sarah C 1 

Head of Section III. 
1883-1887; Correspond- 
ent 1880-1887. 

Monks, Miss S. P 2 

Moore, Mrs. H. K 1 

Moore, Mrs. J. Lowell. ... 2 
Head of Section I. B. 



186 



APPENDIX A 



1888-1895; Correspond- 
ent 1880-1897. 

Morison, Miss Mary 6 

Head of Department 
1882-1885, 1891-1897 ; 
Head of Section VI. 
1888-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1877. 
Morris, Mrs. Effie Mere- 
dith 6 

Morse, Miss Anna S 6 

Morse, Miss Frances E,. . . 6 
Head of Department 
1875-1877. 

Moses, Mrs. Bernard 1 

Munger, Miss Lilian M. . . 3 
Myrick, Mrs.M. H... 1&6 

Newbold, Miss Catherine 

A 3 

Newbold, Miss E. B 6 

Newcomh, Mrs. George F. 2 

Newhall, Miss Abby 4 

Newhall, Miss Mary 3 

Acting Head of Depart- 
ment 1896-1897 ; Corre- 
spondent 1879-1897. 
Newhall, Miss Virginia 

V 2 

Nichols, Miss Mary W. ... 2 
Noyes, Miss Elizabeth .... 1 

Ordway, Miss E. M 2 

Osgood, Miss E. C 1 

Oulton, Mrs. George . . 1 _& 6 
Secretary of California 
branch 1892 ; Corre- 
spondent 1890-1897. 

Oviatt, Miss S. Louise 6 

Oxnard, Miss Alice 5 

Paige, Miss Caroline E. . . . 1 
Palmer, Miss Annie L. . . . 2 

Palmer, Miss A. W 2 

Parker, Miss Alice Q 6 

Parker, Miss Edith 6 

Parker, Mrs. Francis V. • . 5 

Parker, Miss Mary F 6 

Parker, Mrs. WiUiam L. . 3 



Head of Section III. 

1892-1896; Correspond- 
ent 1888-1896. 
Parkman, Miss Ellen T. . . 1 

Parsons, Miss A. W 1 

Parsons, Miss Elizabeth.. 6 
Parsons, Miss Katharine . . 2 
Parsons, Miss Mary E. . . . 1 

Paul, Miss Isabel 3 

Paxton, Mrs. C. E 3 

Peabody, Miss Lucy G. . . . 2 
Peabody, Miss Mary C. - . . 1 

Head of Department 

1884-1888, 1891-1892 ; 

Head of Section IV. 

1881-1884, 1891-1897 ; 

Head of Psychology 

1897. 

Pearne, Miss Clara J 6 

Pease, Mrs. John C 1 

Peirce, Miss Mary E 4 

Peirson, Mrs. Charles L. . 1 

Penfield, Miss M. F 2 

Perley, Miss Mary G 6 

Perkins, Miss Elizabeth 

W 4 

Head of Department 

1873-1874. 

Perry, Miss Claire 6 

Pierce, Mrs. E. C 5 

Pike, Miss Lucy J. 1 

Pitman, Miss Harriet M. . 1 

Piatt, Miss Fanny 3 

Porter, Miss Annie 6 

Louisiana. 

Porter, Miss Helen 6 

Porter, Miss Mary W 6 

Louisiana. 

Porter, Miss Mary G 6 

Powers, Mrs. George H... 3 
Pratt, Mrs. E. Ellerton... 3 

Prentiss, Mrs. S. R 3 

Prime, Miss M. R 1 

Ranlett, Miss S. Alice . . 

1&2&6 
RapaUo, Miss Helen S — 3 
Ray, Miss Lydia P. . ■ 1 & 6 
Reed, Miss Helen Leah . . 6 



APPENDIX A 



187 



Reed, Miss Sybil E 6 

Richards, Miss Elise B.. . 

5&1 
Head of Department V. 
1880-1897. 
Richards, Mrs. Robert H. 2 
Head of Department 
1876-1897; Head of Sec- 
tion I. 
Richardson, Mrs. J. B.. .. 6 
Richardson, Mrs. Lucy S. 1 
Richardson, Mrs. Thomas 

5&6 

RiddeU, Miss L. S 6 

Riddle, Miss M. E 1 

Rives, Mrs. William C. . . 6 

Rivers, Miss Mary 4 

Robbins, Miss Elizabeth 

3 

Roberts, Miss Amy J 2 

Robinson, Miss Blanche . . 5 

Robinson, Mrs. E. G 5 

Rogers, Miss Mary 6 

Rollins, Miss E. S 6 

Rollins, Mrs William H.. 6 
Head of Department 
1877-1882; Correspond- 
ent 1875-1897. 
Rood, Miss Katherine E. . 6 

Root, Miss Mary P 1 

Ropes, Miss Emilie 1 

Russell, Miss L. D 6 

Russell, Mrs. Robert S. 3 
Head of Section V. 
1887-1889; Correspond- 
ent 1886-1889. 

Sargeant, Miss Genevieve. 6 
Sargent, Miss Emily W. 

2&3 

Sargent, Miss G. W 5 

Saunders, Miss Mary T. . . 2 
Scudder, Miss Vida D... . 6 
Scull, Mrs. Gideon 4 

Head of Department 

1895-1897. 
Seabury, Miss Helen H. . . 3 
Severance, Mrs. Pierre C. 3 

Head of Department 



1892-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1879-1881 ; 1883-1897. 
Sewall, Miss Hannah R. . . 1 
Shaler, Mrs. Nathaniel S.. 6 
Shattuck, Miss Lucy B.. . 6 

Shaw, Miss Anna B 5 

Sheldon, Miss Georgianna 

R 1 

Sheldon, Mrs. Shepard L. 1 
Sheppard, Miss Margaret. 2 
Sherwood, Miss Katharine 

F 3 

Head of Section V. 
1890-1895. 
Shimmin, Miss Blanche, 

Librarian, 1876-1878. 
Simmons, Miss Elizabeth 

R 1 

Skeel, Miss Adelaide 3 

Skeel, Miss Lucy 3 

Skeel, Miss Mary H 3 

Slocum, Miss Anna D. . . . 3 

Smith, Mrs. Abiel M 6 

Smith, Miss Clara, Farrar. 1 

Smith, Mrs. Hamilton I. . 1 

Head of Pedagogy 

1888-1890. 

Smith, Mrs. S. Sidney. ... 3 

Soley, Mrs. James J 4 

Soule, Miss Caroline G 6 

Southworth, Miss Mary L. 6 
Spalding, Miss Dora N. . . 6 
Spalding, Miss Mary A. . . 6 

Stanton, Miss M. A 2 

Starbuck, Miss Mary E. . . 6 
Stephenson, Miss A. W. . . 5 

Sterling, Miss Alma 1 

Steuart, Miss M. Louise . . 3 
Stewardson, Mrs. L. C. . . 1 

Stimpson, Mrs. T. M 6 

Stone, Miss Annie 6 

Stone, Mrs. Francis H. . . . 3 

Stone, Miss Lydia R 6 

Storer, Mrs. Frank H. . . . 6 

Storer, Mrs. R. B 6 

Storrow, Miss Elizabeth 

R 3 

Storrs, Miss Maria 6 

Stout, Mrs. Francis A. . . . 5 



188 



APPENDIX A 



Straight, Mrs. H. H 6 

Head of Section VI. 
1884-1885. 

Stratton, Miss A. H 6 

Sudborough, Mrs. T. K... 6 
Swau, Miss Caroline D. . . . 6 
Head of Section VI. 
1876-1880; Correspond- 
ent 1876-1880. 

Sweetser, Mrs. A. L 2 

Head of Section II. 
1893-1897; Correspond- 
ent 1879-1897. 
Symmes, Miss Hannah P. 2 

Taher, Miss Sarah H 3 

Talbot, Miss Marion 2 

Head of Section IV. 
1888-1891; Correspond- 
ent 1886-1892. 

Tappan, Miss Bessie 6 

Tappan, Mrs. Daniel L. . . 6 
Tappan, Miss Mary A. . . . 6 

Tappan, Miss Mary S 6 

Tarbox, Miss Mary 2 

Terry, Mrs. James G 1 

Tetlow, Mrs. John 2 

Thayer, Miss Mary V 2 

Thomas, Miss Cora B. . . . 6 

Thomas, Miss Jane 6 

Thompson, Mrs. E. G 6 

Thompson, Miss Katha- 
rine M 6 

Thomson, Miss Edith P. . . 1 
Thornton, Miss Elizabeth 

T 1 

Head of Department 
1889-1891 ; Head of Sec- 
tion II. 1887-1890 ; Cor- 
respondent 1886-1891, 
1896-1897. 
Thwing, Miss Annie H. 

1&6 
Head of Section IV. 
1884-1888, 1890-1892.^ 
Tileston, Miss Katherine 

C 4 

Tilton, Miss Annie E 6 

Towne, Miss A. N 6 



Townsend, Mrs. Edmund 

M., Jr 5 

Townsend, Mrs. Henry E. 4 
Townsend, Miss Letitia. . 2 

Trail, Miss Florence 1 

Treat, Miss Sarah B 3 

Trimble, Mrs. Merritt 3 

Trowbridge, Miss Edith 

C 3 

Tucker, Mrs. Alfred 1 

Twitehell, Mrs. Edward. . 3 

Upham, Mrs. George B. . . 6 

Van Kleeck, Mrs. Henry. 6 
Van Rensselaer, Miss Mar- 
garet 1 

Vaughan, Mrs. Benjamin 6 
Viaux, Miss F. V 5 

Wadsworth, Mrs. Alex- 
ander F 3 

Librarian 1878-1880. 

Wales, Miss Annie F 5 

Walker, Miss Annie 5 

Ward, Miss Lily J 1 

Ward, Miss Marian De C. 4 

Ware, Miss Emma 6 

Ware, Mrs. Walter C 1 

Warner, Miss Annie L. . . . 2 
Warner, Mrs. Joseph B. . . 6 
Warren, Mrs. Harold B... 3 

Warren, Miss Helen 2 

Watson, Miss Bertha. 1 & 6 

Watson, Miss Rosa B 2 

Webster, Miss Mary P.. .. 3 
Head of Section V. 
1887-1897. 

Weekes, Miss Alice D 3 

Head of Department 
1885-1892; Correspond- 
ent 1879-1897. 

Weitzel, Mrs. C. T 1 

Weld, Mrs. A. T 2 

Wellman, Mrs. Frank L. . 6 

Welsh, Mrs. Osgood 1 

Wendte, Mme. Johanna. . 4 
Wentworth, Miss E. B. . . 2 
Wentworth, Miss Sarah E. 2 



APPENDIX A 



189 



Whaley, Miss Sarah G.. . . 1 
Wheeler, Miss Alma B. . . 2 

Wheeler, Miss Helen 1 

Wheeler, Miss Katharine 

F 6 

Wheelwright, Miss Anita 

E 1 

Wheelwright, Mrs, Ed- 
ward 5 

Wheelwright, Miss S. 

D. 6 

Whitcomh, Mrs. Julia A. 3 
Whitney, Mrs. George .... 1 
Librarian, 1887-1888 ; 
Correspondent 1876- 
1880. 
Whitney, Miss Mary, Li- 
brarian 1880-1881. 
Whitney, Miss Mary W.. . 2 
Head of Section III. 
1879-1881; Correspond- 
ent 1877. 

Wiggin, Mrs. H. B 6 

Wiggins, Miss Ella F 6 



Head of Sections IV. 

& V. 1887-1891 ; Corre- 
spondent 1886-1897. 

WiHard, Mrs. A. R 6 

WUlcox, Miss EUa G 6 

Williamson, Miss G 6 

Willmer, Miss Amy 1 

Wilson, Mrs. Horace 1 

Winchester, Miss H. S. . . 3 
Wingate, Miss Margaret . . 6 
Withey, Miss Elizabeth A. 6 
Witkowsky, Miss Esther. 2 
Woolson, Miss Eda A. . . . 6 

Wright, Miss K. E 3 

Wyman, Miss Mary M. . . 1 

Head of Section 1. 1882- 

1884 ; Correspondent 

1879-1884; 1887-1888. 

Wynne, Miss Sarah C 1 

Yarnall, Miss Anna 1 

Yates, Mrs. Alonzo 2 

Yost, Miss Florence L. . . . 6 
Young, Miss Mary G 6 



APPENDIX B 

HEALTH 

These pages are addressed to the Students of the So- 
ciety to Encourage Studies at Home, to the women of 
various ages and various stations, living in difEerent parts 
of the United States, who have joined it for the purposes 
of home education. Grieved by the amount of ill-health, 
and consequent anxiety, revealed in the correspondence, 
(finding it also a frequent hindrance to progress,) the 
Committee resolved to make an appeal in behalf of the 
laws of health, and to urge attention to them, not only on 
the usual grounds, but for the sake of the very studies 
■which the Society aims to promote. 

Members of the Society, whose awakened interest leads 
them to desire further knowledge, can apply for informa- 
tion about books on health to the " Head of the Science 
Department," through the Secretary. 

Additional copies of this paper will be sent by the Sec- 
retary on receipt of five cents for single copies, or one dol- 
lar for twenty-five. 

All applications must be sent by maU. 

For the Executive Committee, 

A. E. TICKNOR, Secretary. 

Boston, Mass., Nov., 1878. 



Between the old ascetic idea that there is virtue in dis- 
regarding the body, and the opposite tendency, always 
common, to indulge the body by luxurious living, lies the 
truth, that the human body is a wonderful instrument, 
on the wise management of which depends our power of 



APPENDIX B 191 

accomplishing, through its use, certain objects, held in 
high esteem by thinking people. 

If we wish to live long and comfortably, we must keep 
the body in good condition. If we wish to rise to enjoy- 
ment, or to eminence intellectually, we must keep the 
body in a state to serve us well. If we only wish to be 
useful, happy, and capable of mental progress, we yet 
need a physical system well cared for, working without 
friction or disturbance. 

The laws of physical health are. fixed and uniform ; just 
as inexorable as any laws by which planets move, or plants 
grow. A knowledge of many of these laws is coming, of 
late, within the reach of all educated persons ; and it is at 
their peril that they disobey them, or fail to study them. 

The chief facts on which rules for health are now based 
can be found, in a simple form, and very attractively 
stated, in the "Primer of Physiology," by M. Foster, 
published by Appleton & Co., New York, and we beg all 
our readers to obtain and read it.^ Rules founded on well- 
known facts can be readily reached, in the "Hampton 
Tracts," 2 in " American Health Primers," ^ and in other 
publications whose value can be learned frona any weU- 
informed physician. 

We do not propose to cover the whole ground, but to 
brmg forward some special points, to which we most desire 
to draw attention. 

I. 

Regarding the body, at first, simply as a machine, of 
which large and important portions are intended for re- 
building and heating purposes, we find that, like all other 
machines, it requires the fulfillment of certain well-defined 
conditions, in order that it may do its full work easily. 
Among these essential conditions are, fia-st, supplies of air, 

1 Price 45 cents. One of the Science Primers, reprinted from 
English originals. 

2 To be had of G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. Eight cents each, 
s Published by Blakiston, Philadelphia. 



192 APPENDIX B 

water, and food ; and afterwards, cleanliness, that is, the 
removal of all waste matter, as the condition of most work 
with least expenditure of force. 

" The relative value of these three essentials (air, water, 
and food) would be differently estimated by many per- 
sons ; but we have no hesitation in placing air far in ad- 
vance of food, as a means of preserving health." i We 
are bathed in air, we breathe air, every naoment. Water 
and food we take only at intervals, and in comparatively 
small quantities. Moreover, a person breathing pure air, 
day and night, can digest almost any quality of food. 

In a room thirteen feet square by nine feet high there is 
only air enough for one person to breathe, without danger, 
for two hours ; yet how many people sleep in rooms of 
this size, with closed doors and windows, even draw the 
bedclothes over their heads for warmth, taking in with 
each breath the poisonous dead matter which is every 
instant thrown off from the lungs and skin, and then won- 
der why they have headaches and cannot eat next morn- 
ing. How often do two or three people sit, for some 
hours, in such a room, with double windows perhaps, and 
with no change of air, unless from the momentary open- 
ing of a door into another room. If they think at all 
about it, they suppose that sufficient air comes in through 
cracks ; but the amount that so enters a room is far from 
sufficient in ordinary circumstances. A great difference 
in temperature between the outer and inner air, or a vio- 
lent wind blowing outside, causes a somewhat rapid change 
of air, even in a well-built house ; but only under one of 
these two conditions should any one sleep, or remain more 
than one hour, in an ordinary room, without a direct com- 
munication with out-door air ; a door open into another 
closed room is not enough. A chimney, communicating 
with the room by an open fireplace, is a very important aid 
to ventilation. 

Windows closed with weather-strips, rooms heated by 

1 Dr. George Derby, Mass. State Board of Health, Report, 1873. 



APPENDIX B 193 

air-tight stoves or pipes, are therefore false economy, 
since they bring doctors' bills and druggists' bills, though 
they save coal and keep out dust. 

Among the most fruitful sources of dangerous air are 
the following : cellars w^ith uncemented bottoms, often lit- 
tered with decaying vegetables ; open drains about the 
house ; piles of rubbish in the yard ; stagnant water near. 
Bad air from neglected drains causes not only fevers, dys- 
entery, and diphtheria, but asthma, and other chronic 
troubles. Always fear a smell ; trace it to its cause, and 
provide a remedy. By daily contact with fresh air the 
sense of smell will become trained for one of its most im- 
portant uses, — the detection of dangerous air. 

Not only circulation of pure air, but some moisture in it, 
is very important. Does every one know that if the air 
in a room is very dry, it is worse than useless to heat it 
above a certain point, for a sensation of chilliness is caused 
by the evaporation from the skin, created by the hot, dry 
air? Houses heated by cast-iron air-tight stoves, and 
badly constructed furnaces, cause this excessive dryness, 
and also are liable to bring into the rooms the noxious 
gases of coal. Keep the thermometer at 66° or 68°, with 
the air pure and moist, and the pleasant excitement of the 
lungs, quickening the circulation, helps to warm you ; 
and, for the rest, warna clothing is better than heated air. 

Another false economy, besides that of excluding fresh 
air, is that of excluding the sun. The entrance of sun- 
light into a room changes the quality of the air in a health- 
giving way, so that in some states of serious illness it acts 
as a remedy. Every room which can be reached by the 
sun should be opened to it every day ; and the air so vital- 
ized by sunshine should be drawn into every other part of 
the house. There is nourishment in sunlight, even pre- 
vention of disease, and rooms darkened to save carpets 
and curtains are darkened, also, to waste health and life, 
and therefore money. 

Water is second only to air, both in the importance of 



194 APPENDIX B 

its absolute purity and in the danger of unsuspected con- 
tamination. A well-trained sense of smell will often serve 
in the case of air ; but water may be in a condition to 
cause typhoid fever or diphtheria, and yet give no evi- 
dence to the unaided senses. It is now held by the best 
authorities that at least these two dreaded diseases can be 
directly traced to bad drainage. The contamination is 
even conveyed in milk, when, either for dilution or for the 
washing of cans and pans, water from a foul well has been 
used, such milk having been regarded as the cause of pre- 
vailing fevers in districts supplied by careless mUkmen. 
Not only should wells be protected, but cisterns should be 
periodically cleaned. Cisterns are sometimes left care- 
lessly uncleaned for years, to the great injury of the water. 
Tanks in houses should also be cleaned ; and the rooms in 
which they are should be kept free from all bad air. 

The conditions of soil and rock are so varied, in different 
parts of the country, that no infallible rule for the safe 
position of wells can be given. It has been estimated 
that a well commonly receives drainage from a surface 
area whose diameter is about three times the depth of the 
well, although even that distance is not always safe from 
sources of contamination (cesspool, drain, or decaying 
matter). Too great care cannot be taken to secure pure 
water. 

The supply of solid food has, in its due place, an impor- 
tance far greater than would appear by the very moderate 
amount of attention it receives. Indeed, it is a strange 
fact that "our domestic animals are and have been far 
more favored than their owners in respect to nutrition." ^ 
The beasts and fowls on a farm, being either articles for 
the market or creatures relied on for productive labor, 
are carefully fed, and for a specific purpose, for strength, 
for milk, for eggs, etc., and most farmers are familiar 
with the best way of feeding them to develop their great- 

1 Dr. E. Jarvis, Mass. Board of Health, Keport 1874, from which 
several of the succeeding passages on food are taken. 



APPENDIX B 195 

est market value, so that failure in such matters is very- 
rare ; but the same farmers feed themselves and their 
families according to accidental convenience, and, conse- 
quently, weak, dyspeptic men, women, and children are 
common. " Man suffers more from sickness in all stages 
of his life than his animals." 

Surely this need not be so. If the food of human beings 
is appropriately selected and suitably cooked, as is the 
case with well-eared-for domestic animals, the work of 
digestion is rendered easy, and the body is well nourished 
and made strong. 

On the other hand, m.uch disease and disability and loss 
of working power, even premature death, are brought 
upon us by misadaptation and unfitting preparation of 
food. 

A farmer of high intelligence in all the varieties of his 
vocation, who watched his animals unceasingly, and fed 
them according to their idiosyncrasies, as well as for his 
own purposes, giAdng each the special food on which it 
worked better or throve better, being met one day, acci- 
dentally, by his physician, and seen to be in pain, ad- 
mitted, on questioning, he suffered so miuch after his 
meals that he was almost unfitted for work, and usually 
lost the whole afterno6n. This careful observer of liis 
cattle and fowls had not thought to watch himself, nor 
had he suspected any connection between his food and his 
suffering and weakness. Yet the change of one habitual 
article of food restored him to himself, and enabled him 
to labor again without interruption or discomfort. 

See what this means. See what power women have in 
their hands. The provider and the cook are life-makers. 
No office has such control over human power and effec- 
tiveness as theirs. "No other position offers the oppor- 
tunity for mind, heart, and hand to produce such large 
and desirable results." Women are the housekeepers, and 
provide and prepare the materials of life, and " we are in 
their hands to make us what they can and will," strong 
or weak, active or sleepy, quick-witted or dull and torpid. 



196 APPENDIX B 

Yet the woman, although not by nature a skillful house- 
keeper or cook, often defers her preparation for these 
offices until she assumes their responsibilities, and some- 
times she accepts these while yet immature and unformed 
in character. If she is able to employ some other person 
to bear the most important part of her responsibility, that 
of preparing the family nutrition, it is usually a deputy of 
a lower order of intelligence, and notwithstanding all the 
far-reaching results that depend on this class, we find 
' ' the carpenters and bricklayers, who build our houses 
are paid as much for the work of a day as the women 
that build our lives are for the work of a week." 

One important requirement for solid food is regularity. 
Another is adaptation or digestibility. 

In ordinary health, three meals a day, at such inter- 
vals as allow time for digestion but not for exhaustion, 
are enough and not too much. In cases of delicacy more 
frequent meals, of less amount, may be better ; but they 
should be regular, and the quantity should not be too 
great. 

As to adaptation, it is for women to apply themselves 
intelligently to the obvious duty of learning to make sim- 
ple and nourishing food palatable, so that pies, confection- 
ery, hot bread and cakes, pickles and preserves, may not 
so greatly prevail in the food of people at large ; and let 
them remember, not only that good diet is essential to 
their own ability to work, and that of the men for whom 
they provide, but that, for the young under their care, 
good diet may be regarded as an essential of education. 

Let the women reflect how much of the fault lies with 
them, when neglect, either of regularity or of adaptation 
of food, results in ill-health to themselves and to those 
about them. 

Finally, we have to speak of cleanliness, or freeing from 
waste material. 

If we take into our bodies half a ton of food and drink 
in the course of a year, it follows that this weight of mat- 



APPENDIX B 197 

ter has been carried out of our bodies by the four channels 
of rejection, the skin, kings, kidneys, and intestines. The 
work of the skin and lungs goes on incessantly and un- 
consciously, and is often overlooked and forgotten ; but 
dead matter, poisonous dead matter, is given off from 
both, minute by minute ; hence the necessity of a circula- 
tion of air, to carry away the products of the lungs, and 
frequent bathing to prevent the clogging of the pores of 
the skin.i Duty to one's self and one's neighbors should 
keep us faithful to the simple duty of a daily sponge bath. 

In order to keep all these channels for waste material 
open and working, exercise is absolutely necessary. A 
brisk walk, or a gentle run of a few rods, will bring a 
sluggish pulse of 68 up to 120 with vigorous beats, and 
then the blood rushes along its course sweeping out all col- 
lected particles ; and if this occurs in pure air, the blood 
becomes vitalized in its rapid passage through the lungs, 
and a sense of exhilaration and freshness is the result. 

Swimming is an excellent exercise, using almost all the 
muscles, while the support given by the water renders 
the circulation through the lungs easier. For some women 
exercise with the arms is useful, when walking is hurtful ; 
and reading aloud is a good form of exercise, particularly 
helping the digestion, which is not often recognized. 

All the muscles should be put in use in the course of 
every day, that no part of the body may be poisoned by 
the dead particles being left there. 

Clothing should always be thick enough to prevent the 
escape of the heat made by the internal furnace ; for that 
apparatus should not be overtaxed, lest the whole machine 
be weakened. In warm weather, of course, the object 
is different, and we seek to facilitate evaporation ; but 
around the bowels there should always be flannel, and it 
is wise to have a gauzy flannel about the whole trunk of 
the body, to equalize the evaporation. Clothing shoidd 

1 For a description of the wonderful construction of the skin see 
English Health Primer No. 6 (Baths and Bathing), Appleton, New 
York, pages 5-12. 



198 APPENDIX B 

also be Kght and loose ; and that next the hody shoidd be 
often changed. All clothes worn by day should be left 
off and aired at night ; and night-clothes should be well 
aired by day. Clothing should be well distributed, keep- 
ing the joints and extremities wrapped. 

One detail, little observed, is the desirableness of chan- 
ging the stockings after a brisk walk. If the feet have 
become wet from the dampness of the ground, it is a com- 
mon precaution ; but if the walk has heated the body and 
caused perspiration, so as to damp the stockings, the ex- 
posure is almost the same. 

It seems scarcely necessary to speak of the great impor- 
tance of wearing strong, water-proof shoes or boots, not 
so tight as to impede circulation, to keep the feet warm 
and dry, since their distance from the heat-making centre 
of the body, and their position among the cold currents 
near the ground, make them lose heat rapidly, and regain 
it with difficulty ; yet we must mention it, because it is so 
little regarded. The circulation cannot be checked in one 
part, even an extremity like foot or hand, without affect- 
ing the whole body. 

II. 

We all know, however, that the body is not merely a 
machine, to be moved by some external force. It contains 
the force that is to naove it, and it will never do to con- 
sider the mechanical apparatus, without considering the 
motor power seated in the brain and nerves. The intense 
interaction between the brain and the more passive appa- 
ratus set in motion by it is perfectly well known to medi- 
cal men and physiologists ; very little to people in general. 

If the mind needs a healthy body for its service, the 
body also needs an active, healthy mind to act upon it, 
and there must not be too great a difference between men- 
tal and muscular development. 

The brain is one of the largest organs of the body ; it 
receives a very large supply of blood, and requires not 
only abundance, but healthiness, of the blood sent up to it. 



APPENDIX B 199 

The brain and the nerves through which its orders are 
carried not only depend on the other organs for support 
and service, but return to them good or evil, according to 
the treatment they themselves first receive. This is far 
more the ease than is usually imagined. Dyspepsia is 
very frequently a disease originating with the brain, and 
nervous excitement tells powerfully on the digestion, so 
that it has been said by a shrewd physician that a violent 
election increases disorders of that kind. Other chronic 
troubles are caused or aggravated by the way in which 
we treat our nerves ; and some of these, when probably 
weak or irritated nerves have relaxed or contracted the 
muscles, are such as only a physician would be apt to 
trace back to nerve processes. 

Nerves and brain may be overtaxed ; they may also 
lack healthful exercise, and, of the two, the lack of it is 
now thought to be the most productive of insanity. The 
brain must not be too much stimulated in childhood and 
youth, before it has reached its proper growth ; but it 
must have every opportunity for development and healthy 
exercise later, and " the best preventive of mental disease, 
even in those predisposed to it, is education, or wisely 
directed mental activity, leading to a knowledge of the 
proper ways of living." i 

The laws of special exercise and proper nourishment 
apply to the brain, as to the rest of the body. Prolonged 
inactivity of intellect is found to impair the brain itself, 
and not only do the portions left idle become impaired, 
but the general health becomes deranged, by the irregu- 
larity of nervous action thus produced. 

Here we beg for the thoughtful attention of every 
woman, as each for herself, and many for those under 
their charge, should consider carefully the various rela- 
tions of cause and effect that may be teUing on their lives. 

With regard to the right balance of mental and physical 
growth, women and girls are subjected to very different 

\ 1 Dr. C. F. Folsom, Secretary Mass. Board of Health, Report 1877. 



200 APPENDIX B 

habits from men and boys, and for them, especially, this 
balance needs to be made more equal. By nature the 
nervous organization of women, particularly of American 
women, is more sensitive than that of men, and many 
things in the present system of education and of living 
tend to make it still more so. 

Contrast the lives of school-girls and schools-boys out oir 
school-hours. A boy, not only by his own instinct, but 
by command of those who wish to get rid of his restless 
presence in the house, is out of doors every free moment, 
and usually in active motion. A girl, after school is over, 
is apt to be told, " You must have some exercise, I sup- 
pose, so go now and take a walk, but do not be gone 
long ; and remember you have an hour's practising to do, 
and then you must work on the trimming for your dress, 
or it will not be finished in time." The girl naturally re- 
turns to her lessons with nerves a little more weary than 
when she left them.i 

After school-days are over, the girls, whom the pre- 
sent system of education, culminating in public exhibition 
and competition, has left to suffer from reaction, find no 
natural connection between their school life and the new 
one on which they enter, and are apt to be aimless, if not 
listless, needing external stimulus, and finding it only pre- 
pared for them, it may be, in some form of social excite- 
ment. 

School-girls, then, need out-of-door life ; girls after 
leaving school need intellectual interests, well regulated, 
and not encroaching on home duties. ' ' We must suppress 
the inordinate desire for acquiring knowledge from books 
and schools in infancy and childhood ; and stimulate those 
who have passed their youth to apply themselves with 
great vigor to mental improvement." 

There are women in middle life, whose days are crowded 

1 Practising on the piano needs to be carefully watched, for vari- 
ous reasons. It is fatiguing to every one ; to those who are unusu- 
ally gifted it is also exciting, and to those who do not love music it 
is wearisome. 



APPENDIX B 201 

with practical duties, physical strain, and moral responsi- 
bility, who need this last injunction ; for they fail to see 
that some use of the mind, in solid reading or in study, 
would refresh them, by its contrast with carking cares, 
and would prepare interest and pleasure for their later 
years. Such women often sink into depression, as their 
cares faU away from them, and many even become insane. 
They are mentally starved to death. 

On the other hand there are innumerable women, of 
various ages, in these United States, in this nineteenth- 
century civilization, whose brains are too active, and who 
"live on their nerves." The high-strung nerves respond 
to an eager craving, which, like the mediaeval saintly as- 
ceticism, puts conscience on the side of work, reasonable 
or unreasonable. Delighting in the use of their intellects, 
intensely alive to all kinds of responsibility, desirous to 
crowd every waking moment with interest and action, 
these women fancy that, because they enjoy all this, it is 
right and wholesome. It is no more right and wholesome 
than over indulgence in eating and drinking. For them, 
when the inevitable results come, there must be rest and 
fresh air ; rest in fresh air ; frequent nourishment ; vari- 
ety of small amusements, acting on the mind as fresh air 
does on the body ; not much direct expression of sympa- 
thy. When the normal state is restored, they will know 
better how to use mind and body as not abusing them. 

Endeavor to watch, for yourself and for others, the con- 
nection of cause and effect, and the mutual influence of 
mind and body. Do this with common-sense, avoiding 
morbid exaggerations, and you will soon learn, first, that 
the mind must not be excited too early ; secondly, that 
when it has once been awakened by education, it must be 
wisely fed, like the body, not with confectionery of novels 
and mazagines only, but with something that will nourish 
and strengthen it. Yet, again, it must take its food at 
intervals, not continuously ; it must not have too much ; 
and brain work must alternate with muscle work. 

For women whose time is almost entirely filled with 



202 AFPENDIX B 

practical work, it is a duty to snatch a portion of every 
day for some kind of brain work that will detach their 
thoughts completely from their routine of care. 

For those whose time is much filled by brain work it is 
a duty to take the opposite course, and find some mechani- 
cal work, or out-door avocation, to change the weight. 

For those whose work is sedentary, a study of botany or 
geology is excellent, as it calls them from their houses, 
and gives a pleasant interest to their walks. 

Take the word of a distinguished physician for the fact 
that " Nothing is now more sure in hygienic science than 
that a proper alternation of physical and mental labor is 
best fitted to insure a lifetime of wholesome and vigorous 
intellectual exertion." ^ And this alternation should not 
be fitful, but regular, and the mental labor should be 
systematized. If intellectual exertion is not familiar, it 
should be taken up gradually, with fixed times and steady 
increase. The healthiest efforts of this kind are those 
regulated as to subject and as to periodic intervals, with 
perseverance in both, and growing from small beginnings 
to such amounts as will develop the full strength. 

A recent English medical writer on hygiene recommends 
the following distribution of time for all whose hours can 
be controlled, between the ages of fourteen and twenty, 
and it is not ill adapted to women of all ages. At this 
period of life eight hours, at least, out of the twenty-four 
are required for sleep ; three or four might be occupied 
with meals and rest ; and of the remaining eleven or 
twelve half should be given to mental and half to bodily 
exercise. The mental and bodily exercise should be alter- 
nated, and two hours at a time is quite enough for mental 
work, if the attention be fixed ; the results of the short- 
time plan, in some schools, showing how much may be 
accomplished by fixing the attention firmly, for a moder- 
ate tinxe, and not over-wearying it. 

The same writer urges that young women ought to be 

1 Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, in Wear and Tear. 



APPENDIX B 203 

physically trained as carefully as men, and that proper 
development can never come without bodily labor ; add- 
ing, " Ido not think that five or six hours' daily real exer- 
cise is one minute too much even for them ; " but, after 
all such exercise, a few minutes' rest should restore the 
breath and pulse to their regularity, as proof that there 
has not been excess. i 

Dr. Mitchell, whom we have already quoted, also says : 
"To insure perfect health, every tissue, bone, nerve, ten- 
don, or muscle should take from the blood certain mate- 
rials, and return to it certain others. To do this every 
organ must or ought to have its period of activity and of 
rest, so as to keep the vital fluid in a proper state to nour- 
ish every part. This process in perfect health is a system 
of mutual assurance, and is probably essential to a condi- 
tion of entire vigor of both mind and body." ^ 

III. 

There is still an extremely important division of the 
subject to be touched upon. This is the study and accept- 
ance of personal limitations. For want of this grasp of 
one's individual situation, many a life is wasted. By a 
quiet and sensible appreciation of it, many feeble lives 
and narrow abilities have been made useful, some even 
distinguished. 

Among these personal limitations we shall include 
some broad ones, which, until we reflect upon them, may 
scarcely seem personal. 

CHmate is one of these. 

Many different cHmates are to be found in our country, 
each having its own evil as well as its good ; but we can- 
not fly from one to another continually, seeking that 
which for the moment seems to be best for us. Neither 
may we defy the climate in which our life places us ; we 
may not recklessly disregard it, or blindly ignore it, with- 

1 Dr. E. A. Parkes. 

2 Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, in Wear and Tear. 



204 APPENDIX B 

out danger. Again, we should not be discouraged by our 
climate, and succumb, complaining, as if there were no 
help for us. 

Let each of us find out the dangers of our local climate, 
and how to guard against them, studying and accepting 
its limitations, which in this light are surely personal.^ 

Every woman has to accept physical limitations, as 
compared with men ; and it is simply folly to defy or 
overlook them, whUe a sensible regulation of exertion and 
of rest will disarm them. 

Each one has also inherited or acquired peculiarities 
of health and constitution, as weU as personal duties, in 
the position to which she was born. 

If in the indulgence of her preferences, selfish or un- 
selfish, she defies the laws of health; or if in order to 
prove that she is strong and healthy she commits impru- 
dences which may thenceforward leave her feeble and 
ailing, she has probably only herself to blame for it, and 
she may think she is the only sufferer ; but, in fact, no 
one can suffer quite alone, since every invalid is a cause of 
anxiety and care to others, and the possible transmission, 
even of nervous diseases, by inheritance, must be borne 
in mind. Dr. Mitchell speaks of the victims of "neural- 
gia, weak backs, and the various forms of hysteria, that 
domestic demon which has produced untold discomfort in 
many a household, and I am almost ready to say as much 
unhappiness as the husband's dram ; " and adds, " only 
the doctor knows what one of these self-made invalids can 
do to make a household wretched." 

A mistaken view of duty is also to be guarded against. 
It is cowardly to fly from natural duties, and take up 

1 It is a common thing to regard weariness, depression, and some 
derangement of health in the spring, as inevitable and natural ; and 
it is true that in a northern climate the confinement of a winter 
life is almost sure to tell on the system ; but this need not amount 
to exhaustion and disturbance. If our lives were wise, and adapted 
to the demands of the climate, the condition of the system might 
be far more uniform than it is throughout the year. 



APPENDIX B 205 

others that suit our taste or temperament better ; but it is 
also unwise to take an exaggerated view of personal duties, 
which shuts out the proper care of the mind and body 
entrusted to us. 

Lest these remarks sound vague, let us illustrate them. 

A woman busy with the cares of her family fails to 
study, and place at their true value, her duties to her 
mind as well as to her body and to her household. She 
makes no mental progress as the years go on, loses the 
power of companionship with her children, grows discon- 
tented and fretful, and passes the last years of her life in 
dull, ignorant unhappiness. Had she seen the limitations 
and laws of her physical and mental nature, she would 
have known that it was not selfish to snatch a half -hour 
every day for the refreshment of her mind in a botanizing 
walk, or a quiet time for thinking in the open air, or a 
locking of her chamber-door while she read two or three 
pages of a good author. 

On the other hand, a teacher busy three-fourths of the 
day, either in school or in work connected with it, needs 
to consider well before she indulges herself in additional 
hours of study, even with a view to improving her mind 
for her teaching, or to actual pleasure in the work. Ser 
great duly is to keep the balance even in the other way, 
that she, too, may have a healthy mind in a healthy body. 

A girl wishes to have the reputation of being robust, 
and she has perhaps been so hitherto. Therefore, if she 
is invited to take a walk of unusual length, or in rough 
weather, she accepts and goes ; although she knows, and 
is reminded, that at that particular moment it is a very 
unwise thing. And, in many such cases, the girls have 
injured themselves for life. 

Again, with the same ambition, a girl going to some 
party on a cold winter night, and having a long distance 
to drive, being already more thinly clad than is right or 
necessary, refuses to put on the wraps which might pro- 
tect her ; and as this kind of disregard of cold is abso- 
lutely weakening, because it obliges the heat-producing 



206 APPENDIX B 

apparatus to labor harder than it should, in supplying 
again the heat that is carried off from the surface, even 
if she does not take cold in the ordinary sense, she enters 
on a weakened condition, which has in some cases ended 
in serious disorders. 

In comparing the present with past times we find, for 
the eager and excitable, a source of limitation in what may 
be called our quicker pace of living, the effect of modern 
invention and enterprise, and of news and information 
reaching every one daily from the whole round globe. By 
these means life is made more exciting, the work done is 
more intense and crowded, while at the same time a 
greater amount of personal comfort being diffused, all 
tends to increase the susceptibility of the nervous system, 
and to impair its resisting power. We cannot, therefore, 
keep the habits of our ancestors. The strain being greater, 
fewer hours shotdd be given to work, and more to rest. 
We cannot do all our grandparents did, and in addition all 
our present circumstances tempt us to do. " It cannot be 
done without one of two things, early exhaustion, or an 
alteration of the earth's movements and a day of more 
hours." 1 

It happens not infrequently that from some temporary 
delicacy in youth, or a sickly childhood, when character 
and thought have been brought to bear on the questions of 
health and future usefulness, wonderful power has been 
developed for getting the best out of life. 

A young man attacked with hemorrhage from the lungs, 
accepting the restrictions imposed, instead of fading away 
in consumption, has adapted his habits to his weakness, 
and lived to old age, doing noble work for his day and 
generation, though always living by rule. See, too, in the 
life of Prescott, the historian, how much he made of his 
life and talents, in spite of injured eyes and rheimiatism 
and dyspepsia. He, too, lived by rule. 

In short, if we would be and do all that as rational 

1 Dr. Fothergill. 



APPENDIX B 207 

beings we should desire, we must resolve to govern our- 
selves ; we must seek diversity of interests ; dread to be 
without an object and without mental occupation ; and try 
to balance work for the body and work for the mind. 
Thus, adapting ourselves to the ascertained difficulties 
that surround us, we can build our Hves round them, as 
birds and insects build round the objects which, at first 
hostile, become harmless, through their instiactive wis- 
dom. 

Lose not thyself nor give thy humors way, 

God gave them to thee under lock and key. 

Therefore let each of us admit to herself that she must 
recognize limits to her powers, if only as a woman with 
the inheritances common to her sex, which are a part of 
the laws of her being. Then, adapting herself with a wise 
docility, she will get more out of herself, and give more 
to others, in the life she lengthens and the mind she 
trains by well-ordered rules, than by heedless indulgence, 
whether of idleness, or intellectual excitement, or ill-regu- 
lated devotion to the drudgery of household labor. 



APPENDIX C 

TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 

The Twenty-fourth and last Annual Meeting of this 
Society was held, by invitation of Miss Elise B. Richards, 
at 2 Marlborough Street, Boston, on Thursday, June 3, 
1897. 

Members of the Society were present representing Cali- 
fornia, Texas, Ohio, and nearer States, the majority com- 
ing from New England, as was to be expected. There 
was an attendance of about one hundred persons, including 
invited guests, who showed by their presence the interest 
they felt in the work. 

At eleven o'clock the Chairman of the General Commit- 
tee, Dr. Samuel Eliot, opened the meeting, and called for 
the report of the Acting Secretary, Miss Mary Morison, 
which was as follows : 

ACTING SECRETARY'S REPORT. 

For the first time in the history of this Society, the 
Annual Meeting is held without the presence of Miss 
Anna Eliot Ticknor, who was not only the founder of the 
Society, but its mainspring from the beginning. What- 
ever was done by her helpers was done, directly or indi- 
rectly, for her, individually. Her personality dominated 
the whole Society, and, though the Heads of Departments 
were allowed to carry out their own ideas freely, yet the 
main lines of work were planned by her, and the Society 
has always been an expression of her individuality. 

It was therefore with a strong sense of personal loss that 
the members of the Society heard, at the beginning of this 



APPENDIX C 209 

term, of her sudden death, which took place at Newport, 
October 5. It was necessary to take immediate action ; 
the work of the term had to be somewhat rearranged, and 
it was necessary to find some one to take her office tempo- 
rarily ; it was felt at once that it was an impossibility to 
Jill her place ; anything done by another person must be 
done in another way. The regular Quarterly Meeting of 
the Committee was held about a fortnight afterward, and 
the members present endorsed the decision of the Execu- 
tive Committee that it was best that this term should be 
the last of the Society to Encourage Studies at Home. 

Sudden as this decision may have seemed to outsiders, 
it had long been felt by the chief workers that the Society 
must end with Miss Ticknor's life. There were many 
reasons for this ; other similar societies had come into the 
field during the last twenty-five years, none offering pre- 
cisely the same advantages as ours, but many having quali- 
ties which were more generally attractive. This we had 
been reluctantly compelled to admit by the steadily di- 
minishing number of students. Our high-water mark was 
reached in 1882, when nearly one thousand pupils were 
on our roll; now we have two hundred and sixty-one. 
Our receipts from students in 1881-82 were slightly over 
$2,000 ; this last year they have been about $800. After 
Miss Ticknor's death our expenses would naturally be 
increased, as she had long given us office rent free, and 
other items of expense would necessarily be added. 

The chief hindrance, however, to continuing the work 
on the same lines as heretofore was the personal quality 
which was at once the strength and the weakness of the 
Society, as no leader could be found who could command 
the same devotion from, the corps of teachers. The num- 
ber of women from whom we could expect gratuitous ser- 
vice was by no means so great as twenty years ago, for, 
while the numbers of highly educated women have in- 
creased, the demands on their time have also very much 
increased, and every year it has been more difficult to get 
the help which we needed. The dread of being compelled 



210 APPENDIX C 

to lower the standard of work has been growing strong 
within the last few years, and it is far better to lay it 
down before this dread should become an actuality. 

There is little new to be said about the work of this last 
year. As usual in the history course, American history 
has attracted more students than any other division. Two 
pupils of this department have studied poUtical economy. 
In the science course, botany, mathematics, and sanitary 
science have each been taken by six students ; one has 
completed the course in analytical geometry in one year, 
which is an unusual experience. The course of sanitary 
science has been more or less peculiar to this Society. 
The art department has gone on much as usual ; the seven 
pupils of the music section have done good work in study- 
ing theory and history. French and German literature 
have almost the same number of students as last year. 
The English literature department is the only one that is 
larger than last year, and here the gain has been in the 
rhetoric section, which has proved attractive to thirty- 
seven students. The teachers in this section are all col- 
lege graduates, and the work has been thorough on the 
part of both correspondents and students. 

In the last twenty-four years we have had 7,086 stu- 
dents. In looking over the records we find that the dif- 
ferent studies have been chosen by the students in much 
the same prop.ortion now as in 1882. History has proved 
a little less popular as time has gone on. Where almost 
one-third of the students formerly chose it, now less than 
one-fourth have taken it. Literature (Fi'ench, German, 
and Enghsh) has always been taken by nearly one-half of 
the students, and this year is no exception to the rule. 
Science continues to attract the usual number, while art 
is decidedly more popular now than it ever has been. The 
interest in this study may be due perhaps to the increased 
number of clubs who are apt to choose something which 
will make the meetings entertaining, and the photographs 
circulated by the Society help to do this. We have had 
during the last year twenty-five clubs, averaging fourteen 



APPENDIX C 211 

persons eaeh ; they are in all parts of the United States, 
and one is in Canada. 

Our geographical range has grown somewhat as time 
has gone on. During the last two years we have had a 
student in Japan and another in the Hawaiian Islands. 
Massachusetts naturally furnishes more students than any 
other State. We have ahout the same proportion from 
the West as we had fifteen years ago, while the proportion 
has decidedly increased of the students in the Southwest 
and South. New York is not so well represented as for- 
merly, as is to be expected, when we consider that that 
State is not only the home of the Chautauqua Society, but 
the State which is best provided with facilities for study- 
ing at home, through the travelling Kbraries sent out by 
the University of New York. 

Since the announcement that the work would come to 
an end with this term, there have been many inquiries 
about other correspondence societies. The Chautauqua 
Society is better known than any others. This originated 
the same year as the Society to Encourage Studies at 
Home, but, while our Society grew out of the interest 
which Miss Ticknor felt in a similar one in England, the 
Chautauqua Society was an outgrowth of the American 
institution of camp meeting. As an educational body it 
began as a Sunday School assembly for the training of 
teachers. Five years later, in 1878, the Chautauqua Lit- 
erary aud Scientific Circles were formed, in which more 
than sixty thousand students are now enrolled. Degrees 
are given to the graduates who complete the four years' 
courses. The fee for joining is fifty cents a year. The 
main differences between the Society to Encourage Studies 
at Home and the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Cir- 
cles are that in the former all the work has been done as 
far as possible without publicity, the teaching has been 
entirely gratuitous, and great stress has been laid on the 
personal relations brought about by the correspondence 
between the teachers and students. In the Chautauqua 
Society, one of the chief causes for success has been the 



212 APPENDIX C 

social relations brought about by the meeting of the small 
Circles throughout the term, and of the large Assemblies 
in the summer. The two head founders of the Society- 
have never received compensation for their services ; the 
educational staff, the managers and the employees of the 
Assembly have been reasonably paid. The chief sources 
of income are the gate money at the Assembly, the profits 
from certain publications, local privileges, and local taxa- 
tion, ten per cent, being collected from all who have any 
money-making rights or economical privileges at Chau- 
tauqua. Dr. Vincent has always been interested in our 
Society, and has expressed within a few months his regret 
for its discontinuance. 

Another very large correspondence society is the Inter- 
national Correspondence School of Scranton, Penn., which 
has twelve thousand students, and aims to benefit miners, 
mechanics, and others in need of technical instruction ; 
this, of course, does not affect our line of work. 

The University Extension Lectures, however, which 
have increased so much during the last few years, doubt- 
less do reach many who otherwise might have studied 
with us. 

Other similar societies are the Agassiz Association, 
which has done much for popularizing the study of 
science, and the Round Robin Reading Club of Philadel- 
phia, which sends out lists for reading in history, litera- 
ture, and art, and kindred subjects. 

There are also many societies whose aim is rather per- 
sonal influence and sympathy than direct instruction. 
Among these are the International Order of King's 
Daughters and Sons ; the Shut-in Society ; Cheerful-Let- 
ter Exchange, and others. 

When the decision was made to discontinue the Society, 
it was felt very strongly that there ought to be an account 
of Miss Tieknor's work in some permanent form. The 
matter was placed in the hands of a small committee last 
January, and the Memorial is now ready for the printers. 
In it is given a short sketch of Miss Ticknor, a short 



APPENDIX G 213 

account of the aims of the Society, and a history of the 
work. Half of the book is given up to selections from 
correspondence. It will make a small volume of about 
two hundred and twenty pages, and will be sold to past 
members of the Society at the lowest possible price. 

It is pleasant at this last meeting of the Society to be 
able to tell our friends that the work done for so many 
years is not to stop entirely, but rather to be renewed in 
another form. The very excellences of the Society have 
been, as we have seen, at times, its hindrances ; the want 
of publicity has kept us from reaching many people, and 
the demands for thorough work and full reports have 
kept many students from joining us. These conditions 
were so much an integral part of the Society that we felt 
we had no right, in deference to the founder, to give them 
up while continuing to use the old name. During the last 
few years there has been a growing demand for lists of 
study without instruction. The teachers in the Society 
have been much impressed by the continually increasing 
number of women's clubs demanding courses of reading, 
but objecting to oversight. Too often these women's 
clubs have been hampered in their work for want of 
books ; there is no way to borrow books away from the 
literary centres, and yet there are many people who would 
be glad to pay a moderate charge for the use of books, 
who do not wish to buy them. With the aim of satisfying 
this demand, the Anna Ticknor Library Association has 
been formed. All the books and other property of the 
Society to Encourage Studies at Home have been given to 
it, and through it all former students and teachers of the 
old Society may communicate with one another, and, if 
desired, renew their studies. 

This report would be far from complete if no mention 
were made of the many years of faithful service of the 
correspondents, who have been encouraged in their work, 
not only by the inspiration of their head, but also by the 
faithful perseverance of the students. During this last 
year we have had more than a hundred active correspond- 



214 APPENDIX C 

ents who have freely given their services. Some of these 
have worked for over twenty years without abatement of 
zeal or interest. Our thanks are due, not only to these 
who have borne the burden and heat of the day, but also 
to the later laborers in the vineyard, who have been no 
less faithful and earnest. To all we give our warmest 
gratitude, and ask from them and from our other friends 
a continued interest in the Society to Encourage Studies 
at Home in its new form, the Anna Ticknor Library 
Association. 

After the report had been read. Miss Myrtilla Avery, 
of the University of the State of New York, spoke of the 
correspondence work to be undertaken by the Extension 
Department of this University, and asked for help from 
the teachers in the Society to Encourage Studies at Home. 
She also expressed her interest in the new Library Associa- 
tion, and her belief in the need of such an organization. 
/ Miss Katharine P. Loring followed, giving an account of 

/ the Anna Ticknor Library Association, and stating that 
! sufficient money had been subscribed to insure the trial 
of the experiment for two years. It is not proposed to 
continue the work unless it should prove self-supporting, 
but, while it is expected that the fees received for the use 
of books will pay the running expenses and also for the 
reasonable increase of the library, the number of expen- 
sive books and other educational tools to be bought must 
depend somewhat on friendly gifts, as is the case with all 
public libraries. The name, not only of Miss Ticknor, but 
of her family, will be commemorated in the book-plate 
chosen by the Association. The design represents a youth 
bowed in despair before a statue unfinished for want of 
light, while, unseen by him, a friendly hand pours oil into 
the dying lamp. The original bas-relief, from which this 
drawing is copied, was given to Miss Ticknor's father by 
a well-known sculptor, in memory of the moment when he 
was on the point of abandoning his art, but, encouraged 
by timely help from Mr. Ticknor, he renewed his wor5: 



APPENDIX C 215 

and conquered success. The story seems typical of the 
help given so long by the Home Study Society, which it is 
hoped will be continued by the Anna Ticknor Library. 

Mrs. Louis Agassiz spoke of her long interest in the 
Society and her regret at its discontinuance, and said she 
felt that no better memorial to Miss Ticknor could have 
been devised than the proposed library. 

Professor George H. Palmer then made a short address, 
speaking in a general way of the good done by the Society 
in its twenty-four years of existence, and of the interests 
which it had kindled and the possibilities it had shown. 
But now, he said, this work is done by other bodies, and 
Miss Ticknor's wisdom as a leader was shown in no more 
striking way than in the fact that she had trained her 
helpers to know when the time for stopping had come, 
and to avoid the great disloyalty of continuing a work 
after it is dead. 

Dr. Eliot concluded the exercises by a short speech in 
which he spoke of the great blessing the Society had been 
to Miss Ticknor. Through it she had helped others, and 
the work had been its own g^eat reward. But for it she 
would have been alone the last years of her life, for the 
Society was to her, father, mother, and family. Yet it 
woidd have been impossible for her to carry on the work 
alone, and much is due to her helpers, who proved their 
fidelity, not only to her, but to their race. The work can 
never end. The seed is planted, and from its growth 
more growth will follow. 



INDEX 



Agassiz, Louis, 31. 

Agassiz, Mrs. Louis, 13 ; sketch 
by, i et seq. 

Anna Ticknor Library Associa- 
tion, 179. 

Arcbseology, 32. 

Art department, 15, 40, 61. 

Astronomy, 32. 

Balch, Miss Agnes G., 49. 
Barkan, Mrs. , 62, 63. 
Bemis,Mrs. C. V., 54. 
Biology, 33. 
Botany, 32, 33. 

Bradley, Miss Elizabeth H., 61, 
62. 

Caufobnia branch, 61, 87. 
Chautauqua, 64, 
Cleveland, Miss Eliza C, 13, 40. 
Clubs, reading or study, 16, 84 ; 

in Japan, 87 ; Friday morning, 

Denver, 165. 
Cogswell, Dr., 2. 
Colored students, 106-119. 
Correspondence Societies, 132, 

140. Appendix C. 
Correspondents who served two 

years or more, list of, 181-189. 
Crocker, Miss Lucretia, 13, 31. 

Deaf Mutes, 65. 

De Forest, Miss Julia B., 40. 

Eliot, Samuel, LL. D., 13, 82. 

Ellis, Miss H. H., 45. 

English literature department, 
15, 48, 61. 

English Society for Encourage- 
ment of Home Study, 8 et seq. 

FooTE, Miss Mart B., 26. 
French literature department, 
15, 45, 61. 

Geology, 33. 



German literature department, 

15, 46. 
Guruey, Mrs. Ellen W., 13. 

Hagen, Mrs. H. A., 46; letter 

from, 48. 
Hampton Tracts, 38. 
Health Tracts, 12, 37, 127. 
History department, 15, 26 et 

seq., 61. 

Japanese Student, 136. 

Lansing Club, 63. 

Lewiston, N. C, school, 130,131. 

Library, lending, 20, 41, 153, 179 ; 
in New York, 59 ; California, 
64 ; of Young Men's Society, 70. 

Loring, Miss Katharine P. , 13, 26. 

Louisiana branch, 60, 87. 

SLlson, Miss Ellen F., 13. 
Mathematics, 32. 
Mineralogy, 32. 
Morison, Miss Mary, 49, 54. 
Morse, Miss Frances R., 49» 
Music, 43. 

New York branch, 59. 

Peabodt, Miss Mary C, 26;. 
Perkins, Miss Elizabeth W., 13^. 

46. 
Political Economy, 29. 
Porter, Miss Annie, 60. 
Psychology, 32. 

Rhetoric section, 53. 
Richards, Miss Elise B. , 45. 
Richards, Mrs. Ellen H. (Robert 

H.), 23, 31. 
Rollms, Mrs. W, H., 49. 

Sanitary Science, 32, 34. 
Schenectady branch (the Spur). 
59, 91. 



218 



INDEX 



Science department, 15, 31 et seq. 

Scull, Mrs, Gideon, 46. 

Severance, Mrs. Pierre C, 40. 

S. H., 23 ; poem on, 24. 

Shakespeare section, 53, 77, 81. 

Society to Encourage Studies at 
Home foundation, 1, 4, 8 ; first 
years, 11 et seq., 86; account 
by Mrs. Agassiz, 4 et seq. ; or- 
ganization, 10 et seq. ; de- 
scription, 91, 92, 97. 

Story of Len and Emily, 107 et 
seq. 

Straight, Mrs. H. H., 54. 

Swan, Miss Caroline D., 54. 



Thornton, Miss Elizabeth T., 
26. 

Ticknor, Miss Anna Eliot, bio- 
graphical note, 1, 13, 36, 48. 

Ticknor, George, 1, 80. 

Ticknor, Mrs., 1, 13, 17, 80. 

Traveling course, 42. 

Weekes, Miss Alice D., 40. 
World's Fair, Chicago, 140, 141. 

YoTTNG Men's SociETr pok Home 
Study, 70. 

Zoology, 32, 33. 



, . / 



